The three-year-old hard construction market has boosted prices and trimmed coverage terms and limits. It also has turned what had been a fairly routine practice—obtaining extensions of policies to cover projects that drag out longer than anticipated—into a more complex negotiation.
John Roe, head of construction casualty insurance in North America for Berkshire Hathaway Specialty, said the issues involved can't be attributed to “any one event" but are the result of "10 years of pricing and claims going up.”