ENR has announced that the AIA is issuing a revised set of Construction Manager (CM) contract documents that include a couple of important features for contractors and owners alike.
The CM documents include provisions for check marking the method of dispute resolution. Among them is the selection of an independent decision maker as a neutral third party to the project rather than the architect. This feature is so important to the process I urge any and all project participants to select this option.
All too often the project architect has a bias in the decision making process. This may be to cover up design problems or extended submittal processing times. It could even be to please the client. I have observed these reasons, and more, lead to disputes that could have been resolved during the construction of the project, if the architect had acted impartially. As it were, the architect’s decision on the disputes cost the parties substantial sums of time and money on several occasions.
An independent decision maker can now bring to bear an impartiality that has not been present on a wide ranging set of contracts. This will benefit the construction industry immensely by taking the mediation, arbitration and litigation expenses out of the construction close out expense column. It will add such a comparatively small amount of cost to a project that the naming of an independent decision maker should be considered a project money maker – for owners, contractors and, even the architects!
