Technical Capabilities

Specific technical skills are an important and essential foundation for the proper performance of any construction management team. Some of the more important technical considerations are discussed below.

Detailed Constructability Review

Detailed constructability review is one of the most productive, cost-saving services that a construction manager can provide. It includes a detailed review of project documents and details for coordination between disciplines, adverse sequencing or duration impacts, possible physical conflicts between various systems, and practical analysis of the question, "Can it be physically built this way?" CCM works collaboratively with the project architect to inject a fresh perspective from the viewpoint of trade contractors who must build a project from the construction documents. Our intent is to identify and to minimize gaps, overlaps, omissions, and errors. This important effort can reveal problems prior to the bid process, eliminating needless costs and delays during construction.

Budgeting and Cost Estimating

CCM employs top estimators, actively involved in public construction and seasoned in institutional programs. Estimating techniques will vary at each stage of the project, providing data in the format most meaningful to that phase of project development.

Effective Scheduling

CCM's seasoned team will develop a critical-path, baseline construction schedule, depicting all major activities involved in the construction of the project. This schedule will be developed utilizing our extensive experience as school builders and construction managers and, on Multi-Prime CM projects, this schedule will be issued as a baseline bid requirement for all trades. After bid, CCM will refine the construction schedule with information provided by the general contractor or, in the case of Multi-Prime CM projects, by the prime contractors. In both cases, the overall requirements of the baseline bid schedule may not be eroded.

Bid Packaging

For Multi-Prime Construction Management projects, CCM assembles bid packages so that they reflect accepted industry practices for work scope to ensure that projects are attractive to prospective bidders. The scope of each trade-package is carefully defined and its dollar value calculated before advertising and recruitment of bidders begins. Once bids are received, each trade bid is carefully evaluated in light of these considerations. In the event that bids received exceed established budgets for a package or for the project as a whole, informed decisions can be made regarding the acceptability of bids received or the need to re-bid the package.

Project Promotion

Successful bidding in today's construction market requires marketing skills beyond just assembling bid packages, advertising, and taking bids. CCM recognizes that to attract the most reputable and responsive contractors, marketing efforts need to go beyond the required placement of advertisements, to include personal communication to proven contractor resources, promotion of the reliability and responsiveness of the client's project team, and assurances of the quality of the construction documents and management that will be involved on the project. CCM is a trusted resource among the trades and maintains a large network of resources to draw upon in promoting client agency projects and programs.

Change Order Management

A quality constructability review is the foundation of effective change order control. However, change order requests will occur. In evaluating change order requests by general or trade contractors, CCM guards the interest of the district with intensity and a commitment to eliminate unjustified cost. If our review indicates that a request for change order is justified, we then review the proposed cost to assure that each and every cost item is reasonable and consistent with current costs. If the justification and costs appear to be solid, we work closely with the Project Architect to get his or her agreement as to what is reasonable. Only then do we process such requests with the district. Our efforts are directed toward prompt and effective processing of requests and recommendations of approval, denial, or modification, to avoid delay to the work. CCM's reputation for objective processing of changes and effective containment of change order costs is among the best in the industry.

Document Control

Proper management of construction documents, payment requests, RFI's, submittals, and change order requests is a very important factor in the success of construction projects. Document control becomes even more critical as the project team expands beyond the owner and the architect to include consultants, trade contractors, and State agencies, all of whom have an interest in the project. CCM utilizes proven methods for ensuring that time-sensitive documents move quickly and that issues are resolved before delays occur. Our efforts are directed to prompt and efficient processing of requests and recommendations of approval, denial, or modification to avoid delay of work.