My son is finally old enough and experienced enough for us to be able to sit down and have a real conversation. Not just grunts and gestures, but words with substance and meaning. 

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Son:     Bay-bee?

Me:      Can you say that again?

Son:     Bay-bee?

Me:      <pause>  I’m sorry, I don’t understand.  Can you show me?

Son:     <walks into the kitchen and points to the freezer>

Me:      Oh, of course!  A bagel!  Wait…you want a bagel now?  You just

           had dinner.  You can have a bagel for breakfast tomorrow, okay?

Son:     <Silent agreement>

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At 1½ years old he understands the importance of communication to any successful endeavor. The same holds true for successful construction projects and communication in the office, in the field, on the phone or over email.

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Lately I have been into quotes. Whether they are famous quotes by famous people, famous quotes that have in turn made people famous, or simply statements made by individuals like you and me that have stuck with me and are remembered from time to time. Above my computer monitor, I have a quote that reads, “Men are made stronger on realization that the helping hand they need is at the end of their own arm.” I cannot remember where I got this quote from but I firmly believe in it. This was my favorite quote for the past few months. (more…)

I have the pleasure to announce that ARCADIS Construction Claims Services is launching a complimentary web-based informational seminar series.  We invite you to participate in Tools of the Trade – Building Skills to Prevent, Mitigate and Resolve Construction Disputes. This webinar series, designed for public and private owners, general contractors, construction managers, designers and their counsel, features leading practitioners who address key issues that impact the construction industry. (more…)

I recently watched a documentary on the history of the solid body electric guitar. Leo Fender is widely considered as its inventor. Fender started mass producing the first solid body electric guitar, the Telecaster,  in 1949. You may have recognized a maple finished Telecaster on the shoulder of Bruce Springsteen. If you like a little more twang in your music then you probably have seen a Telecaster on Marty Stuart, Don Rich of Buck Owens’s Buckaroos or Brad Paisley. Not to be outdone by Fender, Nashville’s Gibson Guitar Company answered with its own solid body guitar endorsed by guitar legend Les Paul. Fender responded once more in 1954 with the introduction of the Stratocaster, which is widely considered the rock guitar of choice. (more…)

Over the past several years I have had hundreds of conversations regarding the Recommended Practice on Forensic Schedule Analysis (RP29R-03 published by AACE International.  It is available free of charge at http://www.aacei.org/resources/rp/.)  More recently I spoke to a fellow delay expert who shared his objections to the RP as currently published.  These objections included the oft-repeated complaints that the recommended practice does not contain a single best recommended practice, fails to include any legal citations, and includes methodologies rejected by many courts.  (more…)

This past week I could not help but notice that everybody was racing around more frantically than usual. I am not sure if it was in preparation for the unseasonably early New England nor-easter we experienced this week or perhaps it was to get ready for the upcoming Halloween holiday. Either way, as I was nearly run down by the mob in the candy isle at the supermarket, and as I waited in line at the gas pump for everyone to frantically fill up his or her gas cans, I realized that we all seem to have had the same mentality that day. The goal was to finish all of our preparations and move on to the next chore as quickly as possible. After all, what they say is true: time is money. The same mind set is often true on construction projects. (more…)

I wrote here a year ago letting you know that the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International (“AACEI”) was seeking input and updating its Recommended Practice No. 29R-03 Forensic Schedule Analysis, which strives to “provide a unifying reference of basic technical principles and guildelines for the application of critical path method (CPM) scheduling in forensic schedule analysis.” In case you haven’t heard, AACEI completed this process this past April and the new updated RP No. 29-03 is available at AACEI’s website. (more…)

“What is death?  One step further into calm and two perhaps into silence.  No, it is not life I regret, but the ruin of my plans, which were so long in devising and so laborious to construct.”

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Don’t we all feel this way about our work??  I just finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo and it is one of my new favorite books. The plot has everything – excitement, despair, humor, love, surprises, good people, bad people, and most of all, an elaborate, well-orchestrated plot for revenge. Page after page, we see the Count’s tremendous foresight and creative strategies (don’t worry; I have no plans for vengence). Stepping back into the world of non-fiction, this same message of proper planning and due diligence applies when undertaking major construction projects.  

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This past Sunday I decided to give the local newspaper’s crossword puzzle a try. I pounded away at it for a good hour and then decided that I wasn’t savvy enough in word games to conquer it. Twenty minutes later my wife walks into the kitchen, slides the same crossword puzzle in front of her and says, “Nine down is ‘Shrek’…how did you not know that?” (more…)

POST PANAMAX is neither a philosophy, style or time period. It is a ship design that is soon to go into to construction to coincide with the planned 2014 opening of the enlarged Panama Canal. Once opened, these ships will carry up to 10,000 containers through the incredible construction underway in Panama. Now, Panamax ships carry no more than 2,000, so this will greatly increase the capacity of the Panama Canal – the infrastructure that is Panama’s greatest “natural” resource. (more…)