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Risky Business: The Economic Risks of Climate Change to the United States
The U.S. faces significant and diverse economic risks from climate change. The signature effects of human-induced climate change—rising seas, increased damage from storm surge, more frequent bouts of extreme heat—all have specific, measurable impacts on our nation’s current assets and ongoing economic activity.
Design Professional’s Role in Minimizing Claims
Design professionals can play an important role in properly setting the course for the construction project, especially in minimizing the likelihood of claims and disputes. For example, not only can the architect serve as the master builder, but also as the master of dispute prevention and resolution.
The Dreaded Change Order
We have never met an Owner who was happy to hear, “We need a change order.” What we’ve learned over the years is that even though change orders are facts of life in construction, there are strategies to help you avoid them.changeorders-graphic
Change orders (CO) fall into two categories – owner driven and non-owner driven. Both can be mitigated.
Owner driven change orders happen when Owners change their minds, adding a window here or changing the carpet there. We’ve even seen buildings moved and floors added mid-project, which leads us to the first CO avoidance strategy.
Project Documentation: Win the Paper Battle
The primary goal in construction recordkeeping is to manage crucial information to facilitate decision-making. A secondary goal is to document key aspects of the project to provide an audit trail or comply with legal or regulatory documentation requirements. Frequently project participants lose sight of these two important goals; and resort to “wall-papering” the project office with reams of useless documents.
What can BIG DATA Collection and Analysis Do For Your Process Plant Profitability?
By Robert C. McCue, PE and Donald Keer, PE MDC Systems® Consulting Engineers
Process Plant profitability depends in large part on operational continuity or up-time. MDC Systems® has recently become aware of a developing technology to detect and then prevent unplanned shutdowns due to up-set operating parameters in process plants. This capability results from the real time collection and analysis of all reportable operating data…“BIG DATA.”
Process Plants typically produce more data than can be efficiently collected and reviewed by the operators. A plant with 320 tags (equipment items with associated data collection points such as pressure, temperature, flow etc), recording at 5 second intervals, will produce 5 million data readings per day. That is a billion data points over six months. Buried in this cascade of information are subtle leading indicators of up-set operating conditions.
Risk in Construction Estimating
By definition, an estimate is an approximate calculation. This inherently infers that there is a certain amount of risk involved with any estimate. The risk will vary depending on the quality and the detail of the estimate and on the detail of the design information available at the time the estimate is prepared.
The quality and detail of an estimate is usually defined in the requested scope of services. An estimate can be an opinion of cost or a detailed estimate. The opinion of cost is an estimate prepared based on a professional’s best approximation of what a project will cost.
The Role of a Construction Claim Consultant
Construction claim consultants provide a crucial role when it comes to standard of care in construction. These specialized experts know every in and out of construction and civil engineering, and can help with project management and legal advice. Because these consultants know the industry well, they can help prevent legal troubles before they start.
Installing a Solar Power System on a Residential House
In the article "Pennsylvania Solar Energy Rebate on Hold: How Consumers Can Still Save Energy" published in the February 2009 edition of the MDC Advisor®, the steps that homeowners can take in order to reduce their energy consumption were outlined. This article...
The Top Ten Documents Your Expert Will Request and Why
Hiring an engineering expert shouldn’t be an arduous task, although sometimes the process may seem overwhelming. Usually the claim is at the point where you want answers yesterday but because of resourcing, workloads, or budgets you are in a time crunch to find them. Even if you are not initially intending to use the services of an expert, gaining access to certain portions of data during discovery is a proactive way to ease trouble or scrambling down the road. Whether it’s for a third party opinion, an independent design, a mediation statement, or a testifying expert, the engineer you hire will likely need information from the sources discussed below.
Beware of the Gray to be Green
As companies strive to improve energy consumption, promote environmental responsibility and improve the use of sustainable fuel sources to either generate revenues or improve their bottom lines the risks are not always in the determination of capital budgets, project scheduling or execution but in the gaps between technology unit operations. Renewable energy facilities can have a dozen or more process unit operations, each with proven technologies yet at the unit interfaces the process can break down leading to reduced efficiencies, higher than expected start-up costs and lost profits.
How Forensic Engineers Help with Building Diagnostics
Whether you’re looking at residential or commercial constructions, thorough analysis is always needed to assess damages and understand underlying faults within the structure.
Comparative Solar System Performance Analysis
Preliminary Analysis of an Industrial Photovoltaic System and Comparison of Its Performance with a Wind Energy System and a Fuel Cell Power System The purpose of this article is to test the feasibility of installing a Photovoltaic (PV) System on an industrial facility...
No Damage For Delay
A no-damage-for-delay clause attempts to contractually bar recovery by a contractor or subcontractor in the event project delays result in damages or extra costs.
What Standard? Under Whose Care?
Can a Designer or Owner shift responsibility for design errors and omissions by requiring an enhanced effort for construction coordination drawings by contractors?
To answer this question we will recount an example project that was bid as Design-Bid-Build where the fundamental element of the dispute was design defects with regard to spatial arrangement and sizing of system features.
Real Risk Management – Read the Contract
Construction is as timeless as the pyramids. As a result, the most common construction risks have already been identified and allocated in the terms and conditions of standard form contracts. These are published by a multitude of professional associations such as the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This article discusses the practical aspects of risk management and how to convert a potential problem to work to your advantage.
Home Office Overhead (HOOH)
Most of those working in the construction contract claims business are familiar with 1960 decision by the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) in the Eichleay Corporation Case which recognized a contractor’s right to recover unabsorbed home office overhead for owner caused delays and work stoppages.
Risk Reduction with Effective Critical Path Method (CPM) Schedules
The purpose of the Critical Path Method (CPM) schedule (A scheduling technique whose order and duration of a sequence of task activities directly affect the completion date of a project)is to assist in the cost effective management of the project, anticipate problem areas, and allow the project team to mitigate the impact of unforeseen conditions. What a tool! Without this tool, the project management team is simply reacting to a crisis of the moment and their hurried reaction may exacerbate an already difficult project by doing harm in the response to the disaster of the moment.
Treated Wastewater Begins to Flow from Taps Despite “Yuck Factor”
Written by Don Keer, PE MDCSystems® Engineer On February 9, 2012 the New York Times published the following article: “As ‘Yuck Factor’ Subsides: Treated Wastewater Flows from Taps.” This article reviewed the operation of a water reuse plant in San Diego, CA. As...
Benchmarking – The Early Path to Success
The benchmarking process is one where a project’s general scope using key metrics is compared to other similar projects. This general metric/scope includes such items as total gross square feet, net square feet, rentable square feet, net-to-gross ratio, number of occupants, the number of particular spaces (i.e. number of rooms in a hotel), general configuration (footprint and/or number of stories), location of project, and timeframe. If this initial comparison doesn’t illuminate a projects cost and/or schedule similarities or peculiarities, then one must delve deeper into the project scope to determine any or all differences. This means the stakeholders must understand the projects detailed scope parameters such as type of structure, assumed number of interior spaces, the level of finishes and specialties, the vertical transportation needs, the requirements of the mechanical and electrical systems, and site specific differences (roads, utilities, parking, etc.). Once this type of comparison is completed, a proposed facility should be fully benchmarked against its peers.
Shipyards: Dealing with Disruption Claims
Shipyards that are building or repairing ships operate in a very complicated marketplace where costs are carefully monitored. Often claims are submitted requesting additional costs above the stated contract amount because problems beyond the shipyard’s control resulted in disruption of their as-planned flow of work. All too often, the alleged problems follow a pattern that becomes apparent when analyzing such claims. Common allegations of disruption include excessive owner changes, delays in approving changes, late responses to inquiries and problems, defective design, late or defective information or equipment supplied by the owner, and over-inspection. Such allegations form the basis for requests for equitable adjustments, claims, and lawsuits. However, many claims overlook problems that may be the responsibility of the shipyard such as underbidding the costs, rework due to poor performance, management and planning inadequacies, detail design errors, procurement problems and labor difficulties.