Related Links: How to Make CPM Tools Human-Friendly, Truthful The Last Planner (R) System For an industry striving to be more productive, the current state of scheduling practices is wasteful. To learn how to "right-plan" our projects and achieve better results, we first must look closely at our own scheduling practices and create a dialogue within the industry about which practices are efficient and which are not. While there is still a role for traditional critical-path-method (CPM) scheduling as a high-level, strategic road map, there is often too much detail in schedules.LAMBSchedules with an exhaustive level of detail in a
Related Links: Beware the Recovery: What History Teaches More Room for Gloom on Recovery The unprecedented market downturn from which we are emerging has weakened some construction organizations to the extent that they may have difficulty financing the growth that will come with even a slow market recovery. That, in turn, may increase the potential for defaults. But some of the common ways of dealing with the risks may be self-defeating. Here's what I mean: General contractors and subcontractors have the same exposure—if either type of contractor fails, the entire project is disrupted, and all involved are exposed to disruption
Related Links: The Clemson Highway 93 Pedestrian Bridge Clemson University in South Carolina is almost finished building a new pedestrian bridge that runs parallel to a four-lane road between the campus, where I work, and downtown, where I live. With big piles of dirt, heavy equipment and lots of rebar and concrete, it's the kind of construction site that excites us.The finished product is going to look great and be much safer than the narrow sidewalk that was there before. As if that weren't enough, the bridge connects into Clemson's soccer stadium, my main source of entertainment in the fall.
Related Links: Good Guys, Wiseguys, and Putting Up Buildings: A Life in Construction The summer of 1963—remembered mostly for the March on Washington—was marked in the construction industry by the arrival of affirmative action. I don't believe I had ever heard the term before, but its entry into our lives was truly dramatic and, a half century later, worth recalling now. In New York City, starting in mid-Juneand lasting for a full five months, work was halted on the $25-million annex being built for Harlem Hospital. Pickets, alleging discrimination against blacks and Puerto Ricans in the construction trades, introduced a
Related Links: New Orleans Raises $14.6 Billion Defensive Ring NYC Mayor Bloomberg Pushes $20-Billion Long-Term Resiliency Plan In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy's devastating blow to New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) called for a special initiative to rebuild a stronger and more resilient city. That would be a smart investment, but the challenge, once again, will come in funding it.Research has shown that flood- protection infrastructure consistently offers at least $4 of benefit for every dollar spent. The challenge is finding the funds to plan and build defenses rapidly at times when damaged communities have less to
Related Links: Paul Fallon: Rebuilding Haiti, Out of Square The Haitian approach to construction follows the dictum that work requires banging. Haitian workers are remarkably strong, and jobsite camaraderie thrives in displays of physical prowess. The carpenter who cuts formwork with such precision that it slides into place does nothing praiseworthy. But if the plywood is too long, he can force-fit it into submission. If it's too short, he can cram shims to fill the gap. Either way, the carpenter pounds repeatedly, reverberating over the entire site of the Be Like Brit orphanage in Grand Goave, where I am supervising
At the beginning of the year, I wrote that while no one liked the recession, some contractors and sureties were going to hate the recovery, too. A new set of risks will arise as contractors price their work aggressively, I wrote, and profit margins lag and some companies take on too much and burn through their capital.That’s pretty gloomy, but I didn’t give the complete picture about what can go wrong during the unfolding recovery. Because contractors will price their work aggressively and will be hungry for the cash needed for growth, financing will be essential.Unfortunately, the response from banks
Related Links: Beware the Recovery: What History Teaches Contractors and Sureties At the beginning of the year, I wrote that while no one liked the recession, some contractors and sureties were going to hate the recovery, too. As I said then, a new set of risks will arise as contractors price their work aggressively, profit margins lag and some companies take on too much and burn through their capital.That was pretty gloomy, but I didn't give the complete picture about what can go wrong during the unfolding recovery. Because contractors will price their work aggressively and be hungry for the
Courtesy of the Vitiello Family Michael Vitiello, retired cement mason and union business agent, now shares ties to construction with a daughter who had no intention of doing anything linked to the industry. Related Links: An Uphill Battle Against LEED-Based Codes Bash All the Lawyers? Not So Fast Lawyers as Constructors are Ruining the Business "It's only when you grow up, and step back from him, or leave him for your own career and your own home—it's only then that you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it. Pride reinforces love." — Margaret TrumanMy father, Michael Vitiello, is a
The International Green Construction Code (IgCC) recently celebrated its first anniversary, and it has already been adopted by state and/or local jurisdictions in at least nine states. I believe this year will be crucial for IgCC because while the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system is raising its minimum thresholds, the appeal to governments of a building code rather than a rating system could become clearer.The jurisdictions that have adopted the IgCC—Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington—for the most part have adopted it as a voluntary
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