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Instructor:  Bill Haydt, J.D.

Course Length: 4 hours

Purpose and Background

Owners, contractors, construction managers, and design consultants can all see significant cost increases from delayed project completion. In some cases, these costs are straight forward, easily recognized, and easily calculated; however, these costs can sometimes be complicated to determine. Costs to be described include delay-related overhead, additional labor, equipment, and material costs, inefficiency, and home office overhead costs. The objective of this course is to give participants the tools they need to determine the true costs of delays for a construction project.

One of the most important aspects of understanding, demonstrating, and evaluating delay-related costs on a project is the proper documentation of those costs and the impacts that caused them. Thus, this workshop will also describe why the contemporaneous documentation that is created by the stakeholders during the life of a construction project is so important and valuable. The various ways that we document and preserve what occurs during the course of a construction project for posterity will be described, and suggestions for making this documentation more fact-focused and effective will be presented. This portion of the workshop will discuss how effective communications and documentation can increase the likelihood of resolving issues in a timely manner and without resort to the claims or litigation process. Real-life examples of both effective and not-so-effective communications will be presented.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Identify potential sources of delay
• Determine when a delay is compensable
• Calculate the labor, equipment, and material costs due to delay, including labor and material cost escalation
• Calculate the field office overhead costs due to delay
• Calculate home office overhead costs due to a delay
• Determine appropriate mark ups for overhead and profit, when appropriate
• Recognize when an event should be documented
• Recognize when a response to other documentation is required
• Draft an effective letter, memo, or email that is neutral in its tone, focused on facts, and omits editorial or inflammatory comments
• Create unbiased meeting minutes
• Complete Daily Reports that accurately recount what happened on the project
• Create a filing system that is used by all and facilitates the retrieval of relevant facts
• Explain how and why certain documentation is required to adequate demonstrate or review delay-related cost claims

Benefits for Participants

At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to identify compensable delays, as well as understand why good documentation is so important to a project. They will know what documentation is needed to obtain the data needed to calculate delays costs and how to present their calculations in a persuasive way. Participants will learn the most effective methods of documented delays and additional costs associated with those delays, the recommended forms of communication, and tips for optimal photographs and videos of a construction project.

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Assessment of the course objectives will occur through class discussion and a short post-test administered at the end of the course (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Who Should Attend

• Engineers involved with the construction of buildings, roads, bridges, industrial facilities, stadiums, dams, hospitals, marine facilities, and other parts of the built environment
• Architects
• Construction Managers and Program and Project Managers
• Building Officials
• Construction general contractor and subcontractor senior managers, project managers, and project engineers
• Legal counsel working in the field of construction

Outline

Part 1

• Brief orientation focused on helping participants determine which delays are compensable
• Calculating the labor costs due to delay, including idle labor costs and labor cost escalation with example problems
• Calculating the equipment costs due to delay, including idle equipment costs with example problems
• Calculating the material costs due to delay, including material cost escalation with example problems
• Calculating the field office overhead costs due to delay with example problems
• Calculating unabsorbed home office overhead costs due to delay with example problems

Part 2

Documentation and presentation of delay costs

• Why good documentation is so important and why contemporaneous documentation is even more important
• Standard records (Meeting Minutes, Logs, Daily Reports) with examples from actual projects showing good and bad documentation
• Testing and inspections
• Communications (Letters, Emails, Schedules) with examples from actual projects showing good and bad documentation
• When and how to document oral communications
• Tips for effective photographs and videos

How to Earn your CEUs/PDHs

This course is worth .4 CEUs/4 PDHs. To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to complete a short on-line post-test within 1 year of purchasing the course.

How do I convert CEUs to PDHs?

1.0 CEU = 10 PDHs [Example: 0.1 CEU = 1 PDH]