HEADLINES ADDED: June 21, 2008

Survey blasts contractors' time management

 |  from Contract Journal - News  |  Read the Full Article

Complex construction projects are likely to be completed more than six months late because of bad time management, new research shows.... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: June 02, 2008

Upgrading 12 Mile Road

 |  from Associated Construction Publications Top Headlines  |  Read the Full Article

An upgrade of an approximately 1-1/2-mile section of 12 Mile Road between Gratiot and Harper in Roseville and St. Clair Shores includes milling off the existing asphalt down to a concrete surface, doing concrete repairs and joint repairs, and then placing two lifts of asphalt. Cadillac Asphalt, of Clarkston, is the prime contractor for the project.... Read More

Reconstructing Collins Road

 |  from Associated Construction Publications Top Headlines  |  Read the Full Article

Reconstruction of a 2,200-foot section of Collins Road north of Jolly Road in Lansing includes milling, cutting out the subgrade and replacing it with new sand and gravel, replacing catch basins, placing curbs, and paving with asphalt. Collins road is four lanes wide. "We're milling approximately 9,000 square yards of asphalt.... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: February 20, 2008

Time and Material (T & M) Contracts

 |  from Markup and Profit Blog  |  Read the Full Article

I have read several posts on forums lately from contractors asking for help on how to write a T & M (time and materials) contract. If you know anything about me, you know what I think about T&M contracts. Just say no. The first reason on my “Don’t Do Them” list is that there isn’t any agreement on their definition. Think about it. If you need help writing the contract, doesn’t that mean you don’t know how to define it? I am not being mean and nasty, this is... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: February 12, 2008

Collaborative Project Delivery

 |  from Womble Carlyle Construction Industry Blog  |  Read the Full Article

One of the new ConsensusDOCS contract forms is entitled "Standard Form of Tri-Party Agreement for Collaborative Project Delivery" (ConsensusDOCS 300). The tri-party, as one would expect, consists of the Owner, the Designer, and the Constructor. The contract form incorporates many concepts that are foreign, and probably antithetical, to traditional project delivery methods.What, really, is Collaborative Project Delivery (CPD)? To understand the concept (at least from the perspective of the drafters of Form 300), a good place to start is to examine the "Collaborative Principles" set out in Article 3... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: February 11, 2008

What does “the owner is not obligated to accept the lowest or any bid” really mean?

 |  from Trade Contracting - Journal of Commerce  |  Read the Full Article

How much discretion do you have in the selection of tenders? If you are using standard tender documents, less than you may think.... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: February 05, 2008

Future Schools bid costs cut by a third

 |  from Contract Journal - News  |  Read the Full Article

Building Schools for the Future (BSF) bid costs are to be slashed by up to 30% and procurement time cut by two months under new procurement rules to be introduced...... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: January 30, 2008

HEADLINES ADDED: January 13, 2008

AIA “Hot Topic”: Target Value Design

 |  from Reforming Project Management  |  Read the Full Article

lass="pull_ad">Back in the fall 2007, the AIA Practice Management Digest asked Greg Howell, Executive Director of the Lean Construction Institute, to convene a panel of design and construction lean thinkers to write on lean design (for construction). I was one of the invited essayists. I wrote a paper with Greg and John Barberio. Our topic was Target-Value Design. osed that Target-Value Design (TVD) turns the current design practice upside-down. Rather than estimate based on a detailed design, design based on a detailed estimate. Rather than evaluate the constructibility of... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: December 25, 2007

HEADLINES ADDED: December 20, 2007

AIA California Council issues a working definition of "Integrated Project Delivery"

 |  from Infrastructure & Public Works Blog  |  Read the Full Article

At the AIA National Convention in San Antonio on May 2, the AIA California Council issued an intriguing working definition of "Integrated Project Delivery."  The goal of Integrated Project Delivery is to approach construction projects in a more collaborative way, taking advantage of technological tools such as Building Information Modeling.  Click here to view the document published by the AIACC. Integrated Project Delivery calls for earlier and on-going cooperation among all stakeholders on a construction project, including the owner, architect, contractor, subcontractors, suppliers, equipment manufacturers, system integrators and lenders.  One key of... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: December 19, 2007

New comprehensive guide for Integrated Project Delivery published

 |  from Infrastructure & Public Works Blog  |  Read the Full Article

Earlier this month, the American Institute of Architects California Council ("AIACC") and the American Institute of Architects ("AIA") jointly published a comprehensive new guide to Integrated Project Delivery methods.  The document is entitled "Integrated Project Delivery: A Guide," and can be downloaded here.  The Guide marks an exciting step forward in the development of Integrated Project Delivery concepts and making IPD a viable alternative for the construction industry.   The Guide is approximately 57 pages long and is divided into seven chapters.  It begins with an updated definition: Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is a... Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger Announces Ambitious Plan to Foster Public-Private Partnerships

 |  from Infrastructure & Public Works Blog  |  Read the Full Article

Governor Schwarzenegger recently announced a plan to promote public-private partnerships in order to meet California’s long-term infrastructure needs. (See Los Angeles Times article.) Public-private partnerships are contractual agreements which are formed between public agencies and one or more private companies whereby the private company finances, builds and manages public facilities for a specified period of time.Public facilities which could benefit from such public-private partnerships include schools, roads, ports, treatment plants and hospitals. Under the terms of the agreement, the private company either rents the newly constructed facility back to the government... Read More

Damage Claims Strike Out at Safeco Field Project

 |  from Changing Construction  |  Read the Full Article

CDS and the Seattle Mariners learned the value of recording the pre-existing condition of a job site after the Safeco Field project was completed in 1999. When Ken Griffey Jr. officially broke ground for the new Seattle Mariners baseball stadium in March of 1997, only a select few people were aware that CDS had actually begun the first preparatory operations for the project several weeks earlier. When the Washington State Major League Baseball Public Facilities District hired CDS to perform Construction Verification during construction of the stadium they specified... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: December 16, 2007

New bill expands design-build authority for transit operators

 |  from Infrastructure & Public Works Blog  |  Read the Full Article

On September 14, 2006, the Governor signed AB 372 expanding design-build authority for transit operators by revising Public Contract Code sections 20209.5, 20209.7 and 20209.14. Transit operators interested in utilizing the design-build authority for future projects will welcome the useful changes, which include the following: • the dollar threshold for “capital maintenance or capacity-enhancing rail projects” was reduced from $50,000,000 to $25,000,000; • the dollar threshold for all other projects was reduced from $10,000,000 to $2,500,000 (this matches the design-build authority for counties under Public Contract Code section 20133); • design-build... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: December 13, 2007

HEADLINES ADDED: December 04, 2007

Babs Abubakari: Quality-Base Selection Success at Georgia DOT

 |  from ConstructionCast from McGraw-Hill Construction  |  Read the Full Article

Babs Abubakari, State Consultant Design & Program Delivery Engineer for the Georgia Dept. of Transportation, talks about the award-winning QBS program.... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: November 21, 2007

PFI bid process needs shortening

 |  from Contract Journal - News  |  Read the Full Article

Bidding for privately financed projects is taking too long and costing too much under the new Competitive Dialogue (CD) procurement procedure, according...... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: November 15, 2007

Federal Court Rules that Negotiated IDIQ/MATOC Contracting Cannot be Used Instead of Sealed Bidding Without a Lawful and Rational Basis

 |  from Federal Construction Contracting Blog  |  Read the Full Article

In a recent prebid protest presented by our firm, Payne Hackenbracht & Sullivan, the United States Court of Federal Claims considered the protest of Weeks Marine, Inc. v. The United States (“Weeks”) challenging the decision of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, South Atlantic Division (“SAD”), to solicit proposals for maintenance dredging and shore protection projects using negotiated indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (“IDIQ”) multiple-award task order contracts (“MATOC”).  The Court noted that the contemplated change to negotiated IDIQ task order contracting represented a significant departure from SAD’s prior... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: November 13, 2007

New Integrated Project Delivery System Introduced By AIA

 |  from Top Stories from ENR.com  |  Read the Full Article

The American Institute of Architects has released a guide to integrated project delivery in an effort to battle what it sees as inefficiencies in project delivery that stifle construction industry productivity.... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: November 08, 2007

Job Order Contracting Scores Big With Owners

 |  from Top Stories from ENR.com  |  Read the Full Article

Around the nation, local governments, schools, transportation authorities and other publicly funded institutions are discovering that a construction procurement method known as Job Order Contracting (JOC) delivers on its promise.... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: November 05, 2007

Idaho Airport Project Beats The Clock

 |  from Associated Construction Publications Top Headlines  |  Read the Full Article

Central Idaho attracts a steady flow of visitors and new residents, so the local airport in the town of Hailey is a key transportation link. Faced with the need to rebuild its single runway, airport managers relied on consulting engineers, an experienced contractor and a soil-cement specialist to complete the job in a mere 30 days.... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: October 29, 2007

Case law analysis: Construction Pre-Action Protocols

 |  from Contract Journal - Construction Law  |  Read the Full Article

The consequences of a failure to observe the requirements of Pre-Action Protocols for Construction.... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: October 16, 2007

Quality Assurance- How Not to Screw Up

 |  from CSI AudioCast  |  Read the Full Article

North Carolina Architect Dennis Hall shares funny problems in quality assurance How Not to Screw Up Forum :: Share a lesson you learned- the hard way. File Download (5:14 min / 5 MB)... Read More

Steven B. Cornell: Alternative Contracting for Airport Construction

 |  from ConstructionCast from McGraw-Hill Construction  |  Read the Full Article

Steve Cornell talks about the use of alternative project delivery methods for San Diego airport's $700-million master plan through 2015, with work on a 10-gate second terminal to begin in 2008.... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: October 03, 2007

CSI Construction Minute- May 16, 2007

 |  from CSI AudioCast  |  Read the Full Article

Oakland freeway reconstruction begins with bonus-driven contractor CSI NewsBrief :: Construction News Delivered to Your Inbox File Download (1:14 min / 1 MB)... Read More

BSF design and build contracts are 'fundamentally flawed'

 |  from Contract Journal - News  |  Read the Full Article

Building Schools for the Future (BSF) design and build contracts are "fundamentally flawed" and could spark multiple disputes, according to a leading industry...... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: September 26, 2007

I-35W Bidders Question "Best Value" Protocol

 |  from Top Stories from ENR.com  |  Read the Full Article

Two teams bidding on a replacement to the fallen I-35W bridge in Minneapolis have filed an administrative protest questioning the legality of Minnesota's design-build procedures for highway construction.... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: September 11, 2007

Highways: FHWA Issues Design-Build Regulation

 |  from Top Stories from ENR.com  |  Read the Full Article

The Federal Highway Administration published a rule on Aug. 14 spelling out changes SAFETEA-LU directed in design-build requirements.... Read More

HEADLINES ADDED: September 10, 2007

"Single Contractor" and "CM-at-Risk" proved to be popular contracting methods, as UNC System bond construction program winds down

 |  from Womble Carlyle Construction Industry Blog  |  Read the Full Article

With about 75% of projects completed over five years, the sweeping, system-wide construction program for the University of North Carolina constituent institutions is nearing the end of its $2.5 billion cycle. There were projects undertaken at each of the 16 campuses, some of which changed so much that alumni might not even recognize some of their old haunts. As reported by the News & Observer, "the construction program was driven by historic growth. In the past six years, about 32,000 more students have enrolled in UNC system schools, for... Read More