This article from Connect & Construct contains three helpful tips to keep in mind when managing your construction risk. We have provided some commentary with each one.

• Manage construction safety: “When it comes to construction safety, having the information you need organized and readily available at your fingertips can avoid a lot of common safety issues. Some of most common safety violations, according to OSHA, are: hazard communication, scaffolding ladders, electrical wiring and machine guarding, to name a few.”

Griffin’s Take: Prepare early and document the procedures that will be taken to accomplish all site work safely. Audit against these procedures and make sure that each change in work scope gets reviewed for variances from the original plan. Be sure to collect as-built information from all contractors so you continually build your database of site-specific conditions and that you keep the information in place that is readily available to you.

• Keep realistic schedules: “While the goal is always to achieve the original substantial completion date, managing those expectations still remains a big challenge. Forecasting the future is difficult, to say the least. Tap all your resources (experience, subcontractor input, production data, etc..) to create a truly effective schedule, and ensure everyone has a copy of it.Keep it focused on the contract requirements and development at the milestone level. Plan frequently to break down into more manageable durations. Engage the project team in review process and provide feedback in forecast updates.”

Griffin’s Take: Keeping a realistic schedule is key to managing project expectations. The stakeholders involved will appreciate the due diligence you did to ensure this goes as smoothly as possible. Proper site dewatering and stabilization will provide the best possible opportunity for the rest of the site work to stay on time and on budget.

• Avoid unplanned costs: “We’ve all been there…Your HVAC systems are in place, only you find that the electrical and plumbing work have fallen behind. Now, the HVAC ductwork in the wall cavity is blocking critical paths for drains in a number of load bearing walls. Not to mention, the electrical work still has to be completed. Time to rip and replace!Nothing blows through a budget quite like construction rework, which can account for up to 20% of construction project costs, according to CII. Daunting as that may seem, this kind of rework can be prevented by conducting a virtual constructability review via clash detection software, where clashes like the ones mentioned above become visible, and can be resolved before you build.”

Griffin’s Take: Properly sequencing work is critical to keeping a project on budget. Ignoring the need for dewatering early in a project could very likely cause significant delays if a project needs to be stopped during construction to address groundwater removal. You need an effective and trustworthy dewatering team to ensure that your project’s dewatering needs are identified and properly addressed. This process is essential and if not done properly, can bring about extremely high unplanned costs.

Interested in managing your construction risk? Contact us today.