Recovery Schedules —

The Construction Acceleration Hot Potato:

Practical and Legal Considerations

Presented by:
Chris Burke, Partner, Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald, LLP

Michael J. Harris, Vice President, Warner Construction Consultants, Inc.

When a construction project falls behind schedule, the owner may require the contractor to submit a recovery schedule. Issues arise over whether the recovery schedule is realistic, what the direct and indirect costs will be, who should pick up the cost, and frequently, whether the need for a recovery schedule actually exists in the first place!

Contractors preparing a recovery schedule need to understand the various impacts in addition to possible overtime, on their own labor and equipment resources, as well as their subcontractors. Impact costs such as crowding, stacking of trades, and greater rework requirements are not uncommon. Moreover, costs and time savings are usually best planned by working with resource-loaded CPM schedules to focus only on those activities that are most likely to reduce the remaining contract duration, i.e., activities on the critical path. Owners, their representatives and construction managers need to be just as wary of the acceleration, as they may very well be footing the bill!

This 90-minute program covers recovery schedule issues from A-to-Z, including best practices in developing the schedule, executing and monitoring the schedule, and the various legal considerations that ultimately are going determine who is going to be responsible for the costs. Join construction attorney Chris Burke and scheduling expert Michael Harris as they provide practical details and insights to the recovery schedule conundrum.

Practical considerations of developing the schedule will be discussed, including:

• Steps to take to avoid recovery schedule requests
  
• Examples of contract requirements that explicitly allow an owner to request a recovery schedule
  
• When should an owner request a recovery schedule?
  
• When should a contractor submit a recovery schedule?
  
• How to approach acceleration and schedule development
  
• Involving the superintendent, foreman and subcontractors
  
• Identifying the various costs of acceleration
  
• Potential additional equipment requirements
  
• Cost and resource loading, developing what-if scenarios
  
• Scheduling considerations: resource leveling and risk
  
• Other factors in schedule development, including weather and season
  
• What to include in a recovery schedule submittal
  
• Options: should multiple options be provided to the owners for their evaluation?
  
• What to do after the recovery schedule is submitted

Legal aspects and ramifications will be discussed, including:

• Options where no contract requirements exist
  
• Who pays for the acceleration - voluntary, requested or constructive?
  
• Impact costs: stacking, overtime, quality, rework, waste, inefficiency, etc.
  
• Where does the contractor obligation to mitigate end?
  
• Are paying liquidated damages an alternative to incurring acceleration costs?
  
• What if recovery effort/acceleration is not effective?
  
• Schedule issues; was schedule delay accurate in the first place? What about unresolved change orders/claims not yet incorporated into the schedule?
  
• Special issues of multiprime and design-build contracts, and subcontractors who are not behind but forced to accelerate.
  
• What if the contractor missed obvious, or semi-obvious, ways to accelerate at much less cost?
  
• Approval issues, for example: what if the owner doesn't approve the recovery schedule?
  
• And much, much more!

Who Will Benefit?

This presentation is a must if you’re a public or private owner, construction manager, contractor, subcontractor, scheduler, consultant, architect or engineer involved in construction project management or administration.

Order a CD today to gain key insights from our knowledgeable experts on how to create and review schedules on active projects from the perspective of managing risks in the face of delays, acceleration and recovery efforts.

Meet Your Presenters:

Chris Burke, JD, Partner
Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald, LLP

Mr. Burke has significant experience litigating construction, surety, government contracts, and other commercial contract cases. Mr. Burke has litigated disputes in the public and private sectors, both domestically and internationally, and has represented clients in state and federal courts and in alternative dispute resolution proceedings. Over the course of his career, Mr. Burke has represented general contractors, construction managers, sureties, and subcontractors through the various stages of dispute resolution, from claim preservation through trial.

Mr. Burke has worked with clients to avoid costly disputes by resolving issues at the project level. He is well-versed on the crucial elements of construction disputes, including schedule analysis, lost productivity studies and issues of design interpretation. Mr. Burke is particularly knowledgeable regarding claim pricing and damages. He is also experienced in the representation of sureties and their unique claims and defenses in construction disputes.

Mr. Burke graduated cum laude from Yale University and from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as a Dillard Fellow Legal Research and Writing Instructor.

Michael J. Harris, PE, JD, Vice President
Warner Construction Consultants, Inc.

Mr. Harris is a Vice President at Warner Construction Consultants, Inc. and is the leader of Warner’s Disputes Resolution Group. He is a licensed civil engineer and attorney with more than 30 years of construction experience, including 17 years as an expert witness specializing in construction delay, acceleration, disruption, loss of efficiency, and termination disputes. He is skilled in construction claims analysis and litigation support, having served as a testifying expert in mediations, arbitrations, and litigation. His expertise includes analysis of impacts caused by a wide variety of issues, including loss of production, weather, design errors and omissions, contractor errors, change orders, manpower shortages, differing site conditions, management issues, and material shortages. Mr. Harris’ deep understanding of the construction process is founded in his background as an inspector, scheduler, construction engineer, project manager, and scheduling/estimating department manager, where he prepared detailed schedules, master schedules, and recovery schedules, reviewed technical submittals, performed constructability reviews, developed cost studies, and managed the construction of large projects.