Construction Delay Expert
Mr. Graham has been scheduling construction projects, since 1993, and became a senior scheduler in 2008. He has acted as a construction delay expert for large scale development and capital construction projects, since 2009. His experience as an estimator and project manager enabled him to gain holistic insights into how delay and disruption affects projects, and the costs associated with assessing direct costs to contractual parties as a consequence.
Contractors often – through no fault of their own – often get behind the eight-ball of a delayed or disrupted project, yet are unable to generate a valid schedule to substantiate their claim for more time or additional compensation if for no other reason than they are unable to quantify their data. Consequently, EOTs are difficult to obtain, and compensable EOTs virtually unheard of.
As delay and disruption escalates into claims, owners typically have the advantage as contractors seldom are able to establish valid claims before the court. Savvy contractors will protect themselves with an experienced scheduler, whereas others don’t appreciate the value of a reliable schedule.
ReOne provides scheduling delay & disruption oversight consulting services to contractors who struggle with preparing validated schedules that are needed to establish robust claims for EOTs and compensation.
Schedule Delays
Construction delays are a ubiquitous problem in the industry – with perhaps some 90% of all projects experiencing a delay, and over 75% eclipsing their turn-around date. Unlike disruption claims, delay claims are relatively easier to calculate, as they typically represent 0% productivity during the delay period, whereas disruption impacts production at variable rates.
Construction delays are addressed with time-impact-analysis (TIA) model that illustrates cause and effect. A delayed schedule may be addressed with a recovery or mitigation schedule, that intends to minimize delay impacts.
It is necessary to have comprehensive knowledge of the means and methods of a project, such that the recovery schedule adequately represents the revised forward pass. RepOne is a ‘boots-on-the-ground expert – not afraid to get his hands dirty in sorting out the mass confusion represented in most third-party schedules.
Schedule Disruption
Schedule disruption, as discussed above, pertains to unexpected variable interferences that affect productivity – such as trade congestion, access to work areas, partial SWOs, and strikes. Unlike delays, disrupted work does not stop altogether, but is impacted in production.
There is no one formula to calculate the cost of disruption, however, there are basic approaches and models that require deconstruction – such as determining the delta between the baseline production rate and the actual rate. The former is never taken for granted, whereas the latter is point of fact.
TIAs & EOTS
Time impact analysis (TIA) will inform extension of time (EOT) analyses for which a contractor will submit to his client for approval. Because delays and disruptions are dynamic phenomena, they are calculated to represent values for anticipated delays, which the scheduler may not known the extent of.
At such time as the total impact of a construction delay becomes known, a scheduler can calculate the project turnover date. The next step is to determine the cost of a (compensable) EOT. Compensable EOTs are hotly contested, and typically are negotiated past turnover, and into litigation.
Because most schedules are not sufficient to accurately represent construction delays and quantify their cost, compensable delays are rarely awarded. On the other hand, a solid schedule can enable a valid EOT that can’t be ignored, that require some concession (extra time), if not compensation.
RepOne is senior CPM schedulin consultancy – delay & disruption expert. We develop, as well as review, EOTs and TIAs for contractors, construction managers, and stakeholders alike.
