Construction

Construction Management: Capturing What We Learned
By Lu Ori 10-12-15

Advise with care: The roll of construction management was to assist the LTR committees with issues in the construction field that they did not have expertise. On request, a professional opinion of a situation's merits was presented to case workers or LTR board members for aid in their deliberations. While the LTR carried liability insurance, it is important to give formal opinions only to the LTR. Since some of the cases involving construction management involved issues of contention between two parties, opinions to them could have legal implications and involve the construction manager and LTR in third party actions. The construction manager is an advisor to the LTR, not an arbitrator.

Selecting members: The construction manager should be recruited from the industry and have the experience and flexibility to review whatever comes his or her way. Some possible avenues to find this person would be your local equivalent of:

1. Construction Associations:
   AGC (Association of General Contractors), Springfield.
   GPCSA (Greater Peoria Contractors & Suppliers Association), Peoria.
   BAT (Builders Association Of Tazewell County), Morton.

2. Construction Companies known to the LTR

3. Education Institutions Offering Construction Management Degrees
   Bradley University
   Illinois State University
   Western Illinois University
   University Of Illinois, Champaign

4. Professional Organizations
   AIA (American Institute Of Architects)
   ASCE (American Society Of Civil Engineers)

5. Charitable Organizations
   American Red Cross
   Habitat For Humanity
   Construction manager's role: Having located a suitable manager, there are two main areas that the individual will be active in.

The primary role will be as a liaison to the LTR case workers. Those duties are as follows:

1. Advise on case costs
   Prepare estimates of costs to guide the caseworker for budget
   Prepare estimates to test for legitimacy of contractor quotes
   Prepare estimates for specific items to insure apple to apple comparisons

2. Advise on industry standard practice
   Give opinion if work performed is professional and within acceptable tolerance
   Give opinion on what should or should be known be professionals in the business
   Give opinion on the contractors response of the owners demands in light of written or non-written understanding

3. Field inspect items outside of the case workers expertise
   Authenticate claim by recreation of event from current evidence
   Validate or invalidate the community of insurance response
   Separate and prioritize the claim to coincide with LTR guidelines
   Offer possible alternate solutions to the claim
   

The secondary role of the construction manager is to be a liaison to the Volunteer Management Committee. Those duties are as follows:

1. Advise on issues prior to construction
   Prepare a budget estimate of options
   Advise on the most practical option
   Prepare a construction schedule
   Prepare a safety plan
   Prepare a site survey
   Utility location
   Construction hazards
   Site accessibility
   Initial layout
   Check on governmental and code issues
   Check on insurance and liability issues
   

2. Advise on construction issues
   Manpower needs, availability and skills
   Material needs and availability
   Equipment needs and availability

Working Advice: Finally, there are lessons learned from this hopefully once in a life time experience.

The first lesson is to get yourself oriented. Find a map of the area in question and plot the direction of the storm. Also look for the wind speeds in the adjacent areas to the main path. On your site visit, locate the site on the map and orient yourself with a compass to the storms track. Listen to what the home owners have to say about adjacent damage, trees or even homes that are no longer there, wind or debris. Remember that wind speeds are averages for the area. Speeds will accelerate when winds race around an obstruction such as a house and may be two to three times the average at a restriction.

Secondly, do your own investigation of the claim. Many of the claims for roof damage that were checked involved elderly home owners who could not climb to their roofs and insurance agents who were not inclined to climb either. Subsequently, you may be the first person to be on that roof and actually check for debris impact damage, missing tiles or early delamination of the roof.

Lesson three is that you are the expert to the LTR. It is hard to believe that an insurance company can send photos to an engineer three states away and receive an expert opinion from those photos with no one actually stepping on the roof. There will be expert opinions already in play on some of the cases, but the one that will count to the LTR is yours.

The fourth and last lesson learned is to stay away from legal issues. Most of the cases should never go to court. The legal fees will far exceed the cost of the work. While some of the players are banking on that fact to discourage the claimant, it is not your concern. Report the merits of the claim to the LTR. Let them decide what they can do to help the homeowner as much as possible on those points.

In closing, the construction manager can look for some unusual and challenging opportunities to use his or her knowledge to help a neighbor.