By : Jason Dow

Touria Hafsi

October 15, 1998

Construction Management is the administration, management, and coordination of all aspects of an engineering project. The engineering project can take many forms; from the design and construction of office buildings, housing subdivisions, industrial facilities, skyscrapers, roads, bridges, dams, utility projects, to an endless variety of other projects. The project can be for new construction or improvements to an existing facility that is owner or regulatory driven. Each project has its own special needs and requirements that need to be understood and engineered.

The construction manager (CM) is a individual or group of people that ensures a project is properly designed, engineered, and constructed within a specified time period for a given, usually budgeted, amount of money. Once a project has been designed it is put out to bid where general contractors submit written proposals to perform the contractual work. Traditionally, the construction manager is known to be the owners agent, but it is important to recognize that the general contractor also has a construction or project manager. Throughout the construction phase of a given project the two construction managers work together to complete the project to the satisfaction of the owner and the contract documents; One CM is the project owners agent while the other works for the general contractor. Each performs similar functions but have different responsibilities. Their common goal is the completion of the project.

This paper will briefly describe the organizational relationships of the CM and their impacts on the other entities involved in a project, responsibilities and scope of work of each CM, some challenges of the position, and the adaptation of the CM to technology changes of the recent past and those to come in the near future.

Historically, the relationship structure by which the design and construction of a project followed included three entities: the potential project owner, a design team formed by an architect and/or engineer and a construction team. The construction team is usually led by a single firm referred to as the general contractor. The general contractor may have one or multiple sub-contractors on a given project. An illustration of the relationship is below.

sub-contractor 1 sub-contractor 2 sub-contractor 3 sub-contractor 4...

This relationship structure is not advantageous for the project owner. The owner either has to rely on the designer to manage/supervise/inspect the project to some degree, dependent on the contractual relationship, or has to perform those duties themselves. The former involves extra costs and can result in a conflict of interests since a biased entity is used to administer the project. The later requires the owner to perform tasks which are usually beyond their knowledge level or area of expertise. Additionally, the owner may not have adequate resources to administer and manage the project. The solution to this potential dilemma is to use an unbiased third party that is experienced in design and construction to manage the project. Hence, the advent of the construction manager. The new relationship can take many forms, one of which is shown below.

sub-contractor 1 sub-contractor 2 sub-contractor 3 sub-contractor 4...

This relationship has the following impacts to the other entities :

3. General contractor’s work is supervised and inspected throughout all phases of project. CM maintains project quality. Contractors, some not all, have been known to "cut corner", use lower quality materials and products, and to charge excessively for change order work.

Construction management is a process by which a potential project owner engages an agent, referred to as a construction manager. The construction manager then coordinates and communicates the entire project process which may include project feasibility, planning, design, construction, and project implementation. The primary objective is to minimize time and costs while maintaining project quality.

Responsibilities. The construction manager has the obligation to serve the owner as if he or she was an employee of the owner. A construction manager has the legal authority to represent the owner and to carry out business dealings in the owners behalf. The CM has the following obligations to the owner : loyalty, performance and information. Because of the relationship between the CM and the owner, the CM has the right to select contractors for the owner and to manage relationships between the contractor and owner. This usually involves dealing with the contractor’s foreman or construction manager on daily basis.

Besides working with the owner and general contractor, the CM also has to work with the designers, testing labs, and material and equipment suppliers. On larger projects the CM may have a group of inspectors to supervise.

CM Services and Challenges. The CM position is a challenging dynamic role. The CM has to be familiar with standard construction practices and methods and keep abreast of new developments and changes in the field. The CM performs a wide variety of services, some of which are listed below.

• Detailed planning and scheduling : The CM has to schedule necessary testing or other activities. Resources and daily activities have to be scheduled and planned.
• Construction estimating : This can be done by the CM or the design engineers. This involves estimating the projects costs before it is bid to estimating changes during construction.
• Operating procedures: May be expressed orally or in writing to the project entities by the CM. The communication should be precise and should clearly identify the responsibilities of each entity.
• Supervision : The CM may supervise an inspector or group of inspectors who in turn monitor the day to day construction activity and perform other duties
• Inspection: Either daily or spot checking, depending on number of inspectors on site, of project to meet requirements in plans and specs. The inspection has the objective to ensure that the construction is performed to the quality set out in the contract documents.
• Plan review: Review of project plans and specifications before construction and during construction. A CM may be used to review plans & specs during the design phase of a project as a check or aid to the design engineer/architect.
• Submittal review : Reviewing contractor submitted information for all materials and equipment supplied, project design details, and any other submittal information required in the contract documents.
• Property management: it could be considered as a fringe of CM services. Property management refers to the performance of the ongoing maintenance and/or repair of a construction project after the completion of the construction phase.
• Correspondence: Responsible for corresponding with owner, designer, contractor, suppliers, etc. Providing information and clarifications when needed.

• Testing : Once the project is near completion, the CM reviews and tests the functional elements of the project. This may also be done during any phase of the project if something has to be tested.

Common problems encountered. There are several problems an owners CM must deal with and work through during any type of project. Some of the more common problems are discussed below.

• Project schedule: is one of the most basic contract administration tools available to the owner and the contractor. The most common issues related to project scheduling are those originating from delays, suspension, or acceleration of the times established in the contract for the completion of the work. The owner must maintain a meaningful schedule to monitor the contractor’s work progress and to use as a tool in resolutions of disputes caused by delays and acceleration.

• Differing site conditions: this constitutes another major source of discussions, change orders and disputes between the owner and the contractor. The presence of difficult conditions at the site usually determines the contractor’s profit or loss. Owners can limit their liability by requiring each contractor to make a prudent site investigation. Differing site conditions are not uncommon in the construction field especially where subsurface conditions are not well known or where this isn’t underground utility

• Performance: by definition, a contract requires both parties to perform all obligations contained in the contract. However, construction contracts are sometimes breached. To respond to this practical reality, performance, inspection, acceptance and warranty clauses are included in the contract

• Negotiating Changes: One of the biggest challenges for the CM is negotiating contract changes. Contract changes can be driven by owner requested changes, unforeseen site conditions (as mentioned above), design errors or omissions, or conflicting information in the contract documents. A contract change usually results in a cost and/or time extension for the contractor, although some changes can be a credit for the owner. Determining the extend of extra work, writing the change order documentation, and negotiating the cost and time extension with the contractor can be challenging depending on the scope of the change.

• Estimating : This includes the initial project estimate for the bid. Also includes any estimating the has to be done for change orders or additional work.
• Submittal preparation : submittal packages are prepared to meet the requirements set forth in the contract documents. These can range from concrete mix designs, to seismic calculations, to product information of any piece of equipment needed on the job site.
• Coordination : all aspects of project are coordinated with sub-contractors, material suppliers, equipment suppliers, and contractors workers.
• Project scheduling : A critical path schedule has to be developed for the project. This schedule has to be continuously updated to account for delays, changes, etc. Maintaining the

• Correspondence : the contractor has to keep in communication with the owner’s CM for clarifications to the contract documents, requests for information, change order negotiations, project schedule updates, and future milestone completion dates.
• Detail design : In many cases the contract does not provide design details for every process, system, or connection. The CM may be required to develop a detailed design of a system and submit it for approval.