Perhaps the title on this one should be the Competitive Advantage Everyone Needs. In the previous blogs on this subject the responders mentioned innovation and better ideas by the contractors. If they have one, keeping it secret was one option. The thing is, cheating on the specified materials and workmanship is not a competitive advantage. [...]
My recent blog on The Competitive Advantage Nobody Needs generated some interesting responses on ENR.com. There were some very insightful comments, even from the one responder that thinks everybody is a crook in the construction industry. Bidders that short circuit the specifications are taking something of value from the owner of the project. In the [...]
Six joint venture teams recently bid on a $500+ million government project. There were over 10 amendments during the bid period. Each bid set cost over $4,000 and the amendments were extra! They won’t hear any results for a minimum of 4 months. Also the project is unfunded. This means that it can’t be built [...]
It was recently reported in ENR that the staff of a Florida electric utility thought they knew how to replace a steam generator better that the experts they were trying to hire, and at a lesser cost. So, they decided to do it themselves to save some money. The results were not good. The costs [...]
ENR.com reported that publicly owned companies are reporting lackluster results for contract awards. This article confirms what privately owned firms have been talking about on the poor economy. It also confirms what private companies have NOT been saying about their own business volumes. The construction market is one of optimism. The hope is 2012 will [...]
It was announced by the federal government that the recession ended in June 2009. That is 15 months ago. Why do I have a difficult time in believing that? My recession events calendar still has it continuing. My forecast for the construction industry is that a meaningful recovery, not just an announced recovery, will not [...]
Caltrans is reaping some major initial cost benefits from depression style pricing in the construction industry. In a recent ENR.com article on saving over $2.4 billion, they stated the bids were coming in 20% to 40% less than the estimates. On one project the bidder actually proposed a 21% shorter time frame than estimated by [...]
I was reading the cover story of March 1, 2010 issue of ENR. The construction manager is able to get the project done three months early and the building team attributes the completion of the stadium to teamwork and virtual construction tools. I love reading articles like this that stress that contractors, architects and owners [...]
I just finished with a meeting at my local chapter of ASPE. Prior to it getting started one of our members remarked on how he was designing a project for an engineering firm. I asked if this was free or a paying job. He remarked the payoff would be him getting the job at bid [...]
I was reading an article in the 12-7-09 issue of ENR about the Hoover Dam Bridge. The project was plagued by many problems; from funding to unlicensed concrete supplier. The one thing that really bothered me was the fact that wind caused lines to collapse and the Nevada towers fell. This incident caused a two [...]
