Experience Matters

On behalf of a prime contractor, provided technical, scheduling, loss of productivity, and damages analyses in regard to a $30 million dispute related to the engineering and construction of a high-grade gold processing facility. Prepared the prime contractor's claim, reviewed and prepared a pass-through claim for the mechanical subcontractor, and evaluated the owner's counterclaim. Evaluated the status of design at contract award, the quality of owner-supplied equipment, the accuracy of the contractors' bid estimates, and the responsibility and impact of numerous design and construction changes as well as other issues. Evaluated and apportioned responsibility for delay, disruption, and damages among multiple parties. Quantified disruption resulting from cold-weather work, overtime, crowding, shift work, and the cumulative impact of changes. The parties settled prior to court proceedings.

Furnished CPM scheduling service for a building contractor on the High Museum of Art expansion project in Atlanta.

Prepared a claim on behalf of a contractor related to extra work and delays on the construction of an offshore oil platform. Assessed contractual entitlement, owner-responsible and weather-related delays, and the costs associated with the extra-contractual work and delays for an international oilfield and marine services company offering full integrated services.

Prepared a contractor’s $250,000 change request for delay and disruption associated with structural, mechanical, and electrical design changes in the construction of a correctional facility.

On behalf of an owner, performed a schedule quality assessment of a CPM schedule regarding a new university building for the University of the West Indies.

Performed a high-level review of an insurer's flood and fire analysis spreadsheets. Assessed reasons for claimed cost denials and/or reductions and reviewed documentation to preliminarily address cost denials and/or reductions. Developed a rebuttal report to claimed cost denials and reductions for a 237-bed, long-term-care living/nursing facility.

On behalf of an owner, evaluated delayed engineering that affected the timely delivery of construction work packages to the construction contractors on the pipeline and gas recovery facilities associated with an LNG facility.

Provided dispute resolution services in support of a chemical company that was defending against $150 million in impact claims made by a European EPC contractor on several polyethylene terephthalate plants. Participated in the document discovery, research, organization, and coding of over 500,000 project records into an Internet-based document repository. Assisted in answering interrogatories and prepared questions for fact witness depositions. Scrutinized the entitlement of alleged critical path schedule delays due to late and continuous changes, technology changes, late turnover package approvals, weather impacts, and slow agency reviews potentially affecting 15,000 schedule activities. Developed a comprehensive delay allocation model used to quantify and document critical path and concurrent delays affecting the schedules. Correlated issues to schedule activities. Employed a retrospective CPM schedule delay analysis methodology to correctly calculate entitlement for compensable delay costs and evaluate concurrent delays due to approved change orders, fact-based project issues, and weather impacts as supported by project records. Based on the findings, the contractor’s claims were grossly overstated and unsupported; the owner enjoyed a favorable settlement at a small fraction of the total dispute. Performed extensive schedule quality assurance review studies of the contractor’s contemporaneous EPC project schedules to determine if these schedules were fit for delay analysis including identification and resolution of open-end activities, overuse of constraints, incorrect as-built dates, missing as-built dates, missing original scope, and missing logic.

The mechanical subcontractor executed a contract with a power contractor to complete outage work and repowering of CFB Unit #1. The power contractor caused project delays and interferences that delayed the required work to a period outside of the specified outage period and resulted in a shortage of manpower. The mechanical subcontractor accelerated work to maintain the work planned for the outage period. This required additional coordination of utilities and steam blows and functional tests of fuel system, oil-fired burners, CFB boiler, air ducts, flue gas system and stack, feed water systems, etc. Engaged to provide claims review services. Evaluated owner and contractor claims, including a review of the CPM schedule submittals. Produced a schedule delay and productivity analysis to determine responsibility for project delays. The claims team found that power contractor delays and interferences were primarily responsible for the acceleration effort and difficulties experienced by the mechanical subcontractor during the mechanical completion and operational testing phases of work.

Reviewed change orders, schedule delays, and pending disputes between a major U.S. chemical company and its mechanical contractor on a methanol plant in Texas. Advised the client as to its exposure regarding the technical issues involved in these issues for purpose of settlement negotiations.