Title

Reconciliation of owner and contractor views in heavy construction projects

Authors

Authors

E. Serag; A. Oloufa;L. Malone

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract.

Keywords

LABOR EFFICIENCY; CHANGE ORDERS; IMPACT; Education, Scientific Disciplines; Engineering, Multidisciplinary

Abstract

Delay and loss of productivity are the two main types of damage experienced by the contractor when the owner issues a change order. Courts have recognized critical path method schedule analysis as the preferred method of identifying and quantifying critical delays. As for the inefficiency damages, there is no direct way of measuring inefficiency due to its qualitative nature and the difficulty of linking the cause of the productivity loss to the damage. Most of the scholarly work published in this area was based on data supplied by the contractors; and that explains why there are discrepancies between what the contractor asks for and what the owner believes the contractor is entitled to. This study addresses the need for a statistical model to quantify the productivity loss from verifiable site data such as owner's daily reports, change orders, drawings, and specifications, rather than rely solely on contractor surveys. A model is developed and validated to quantify the productivity loss in pipe work in roadway projects due to the change orders. The productivity loss study analyzed two sets of data that include: (1) variables that predict which of the two parties, the owner and the contractor, contributed to the productivity loss; and (2) variables that predict, from the legal viewpoint, productivity losses which only the owner is responsible for. The study showed the difference between what the contractor asked for and what he/she is actually entitled to. This model can be used by both the owner and the contractor to quantify the productivity loss due to change orders, and to offer an objective approach to reconcile their differences. This study concludes with an example to demonstrate the use of the model.

Journal Title

Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice

Volume

134

Issue/Number

1

Publication Date

1-1-2008

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

128

Last Page

137

WOS Identifier

WOS:000251800600019

ISSN

1052-3928

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