ConstructionAdvisorToday

Contractors' Reasonable Expectations of Drawing Detail

Bruce Jervis, Esq., Senior Editor
Construction Claims Advisor

Contract drawings do not depict every detail of every component of a construction project. Some aspects of the work are fleshed out in drawing details. Other details, however, are left unaddressed in the contract. The contractor is required to propose this detailing through the submittal of shop drawings, usually prepared by subcontractors and fabricators.

Improvements 'In Queue' for Department of Energy's OpenStudio Software Tool

There could be several improvements in store for OpenStudio, a software tool that architects can use to design healthier structures with fewer carbon emissions and lower utility bills, but it is uncertain when the enhancements may be made, Nicholas Long, a research engineer for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), told CPC/BIM.

The Hidden Risks of Green Buildings: Why Building Problems are Likely

The great irony of building green is that the very concepts that are intended to enhance a building's performance over its entire lifetime are many of the same things that make a building highly susceptible to moisture and mold problems during its first few years of operation. While green buildings have many positive benefits, there is also strong evidence to suggest a direct correlation between new products/innovative design and building failures. Simply put, departing from the "tried and true" often means increasing the risk of building failure.

How Should Progress Payments Be Structured and Calculated?

On a complex construction project involving millions of dollars of work, it is not reasonable to expect the constructor to finance the effort to completion. Consequently, construction contracts typically call for the project owner to make periodic progress payments to the contractor. The manner in which these payments are calculated or structured is a matter of contractual consent between the parties.

ACI Forms New Technical Committee on BIM for Concrete Structures

The American Concrete Institute (ACI) announced the formation of a new technical committee on building information modeling (BIM) of concrete structures.

BIM allows project designers to create a digital model that represents a building or structure to ensure proper interface among building systems and materials before construction begins. ACI believes BIM's main advantage lies is that the digital model is "data-rich and intelligent, not merely lines representing

Energy Department's Building Technologies Program Expected to Get $200M

Congress earlier this month approved a fiscal 2010 budget of $200 million for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Program (BTP), which is designed to promote energy efficiency in buildings. President Obama is expected to sign into law the legislation encompassing the BTP appropriation soon.

Resource-Loaded Schedules, Productivity and Capturing Historical Data

 Webinar: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 • 1:00-2:30 EST

On any construction site, there is no substitution for good planning. Studies show that construction projects that proactively use and update schedules have a greater record of on-budget and on-time completion.

WPL Publishing (www.wpl.net) has partnered with nine top schedulers in a four-part webinar series, Scheduling Best Practices 2009, to share information on how to use today's robust CPM scheduling software programs to create better schedules. They will also discuss how and why a properly designed schedule can help construction teams better plan and manage projects. For registration information, visit www.scheduling2009.

LEED Certification: Where Do I Begin?

What typically happens when a novice starts down the ski slope without taking skiing lessons? I have seen what can happen and it isn't pretty. In like manner, if one begins the journey towards LEED certification without a map of instructions, the path will undoubtedly be arduous and will likely lead to somewhere other than the LEED plaque -- the Holy Grail of green building certifications. (Every LEED-certified building is given an official plaque listing the building's level of certification.)

Do Teaming and Subcontracting Arrangements Amount to Brokering the Contract?

Bruce Jervis, Esq., Senior Editor
Construction Claims Advisor

Many construction projects require the skills and resources of more than one party. These forces are deployed through joint venturing, partnering and subcontracting. It is the entity that signed the contract that is obligated to the project owner. Yet the parties in the field may largely be strangers to the owner.

USGBC Touts Benefits of Green Schools in National Campaign

When school doors opened across the nation for the new school year, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) launched the third year of its National Green Schools Campaign. This broad-based initiative promotes the improvement of indoor environmental quality and increased energy, water and resource efficiency of America's schools.