You're pushing for project completion, but that long punch list just isn’t getting done fast enough. Sound familiar? Drawn-out project closeout costs you time and money. Often, this is caused by reassignment of contractor resources to their next project or difficulties scheduling with subcontractors. Expedited project closeout can be achieved by tracking and communicating project deficiencies in real time using an open issues log.

Concrete may initially sound like a boring blog subject, but if you’ve ever experienced a problem with it on one of your projects, you know concrete can become a costly and time-consuming nightmare.

Owners are increasingly considering alternative project delivery methods such as engineer-procure-construct (EPC), design-build, and construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC). While the advantages and disadvantages of the EPC method were discussed in a previous post, my personal experience lies more with CM/GC contracts. There are a variety of advantages and disadvantages to CM/GC, but in my experience it is extremely important for owners to realize that it is not in your best interest for the CM/GC to self-perform a high percentage of the work.

Budget and schedule: two critical components that often define your project’s success. There are many approaches and tools to help you meet your budget and schedule, but one of the best is a constructability review. We’ve discussed the benefits of these reviews in previous posts (Four Tips for User Friendly and Maintainable Fish Facilities and Stop! Read This Before Replacing or Updating Your Hydro Turbines Part 1). In this installment I will discuss constructability review tips and how they can be used to defend your budget and schedule.