Construction Contract Administration

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The Construction Contract Administration Knowledge Community (CCA) has been established to help our members better understand the issues, actions and resultant impact of the decisions required in this often neglected part of Project Delivery. It is our goal to provide clear answers to issues of concern to the Institute’s membership and share case studies and best practices. We further hope to provide guidance and direction in developing guidelines for new and evolving approaches to Project Delivery as well as guidance in the continuing education of our emerging young professionals.

     

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  • 1.  Submittal Processing between multiple CA's

    Posted 04-26-2017 11:10 AM
    A question for the group:
    What is the best way to organize / process submittals among a group of CA's? 
    With CA's carrying multiple projects, submittals can stack up quickly, add on traveling and it becomes tough for the individual CA to process everything in a timely manner. Since we're not all busy at the same time we can share the work load, but is that best organized by sending all submittals to a central person who acts as a gate keeper or is it better to have each CA responsible for finding assistance? Perhaps your firm handles submittals altogether differently which would be beneficial.

    All thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

    Respectfully,

    Brett W. Hallacher

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    Brett Hallacher
    Construction Administrator
    Reese Lower Patrick & Scott, Ltd.
    Manheim PA
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  • 2.  RE: Submittal Processing between multiple CA's

    Posted 04-26-2017 11:57 AM
    In the firm where I worked for several years those who designed the project and wrote the specifications, the architects, engineers and designers, reviewed and approved the submittals. This was probably their last opportunity to make sure the contractor's interpretation of the plans and specs were consistent with the design intent. 

    Paul Potts
    paulpotts1@comcast.net

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    [Paul] [Potts]
    [President]
    [Mesa Corporation]
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  • 3.  RE: Submittal Processing between multiple CA's

    Posted 04-28-2017 08:26 AM
    I used to work for a firm where I processed all disciplines incoming and outgoing submittals for each of my projects as well as completing reviews.  For small jobs with limited submittals among disciplines it worked fine, but when with some of the larger projects, especially ones with a large team of sub-consultants, just the administrative submittal processing could become overwhelming. 

    The firm I am with currently has a single point of contact within our construction management group that processes all incoming and outgoing submittals for the majority of our projects with the design architects and engineers completing the submittal reviews.  It was an adjustment for me because processing submittals for my projects at my previous firm had allowed me to keep better track of timelines for reviews and identify need for cross-disciplinary reviews.  The upside is that the time I used to spend on the administrative processing is now available for submittal reviews and other CA activities. 

    With this single point of contact system, submittal processing, as well as RFI's, is done through a project management software, and we have two individuals who monitor the submittals. 

    Hope this helps.

    ------------------------------
    Robyn Wolf, AIA
    Architect
    Richard L. Bowen and Associates
    Cleveland, OH
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  • 4.  RE: Submittal Processing between multiple CA's

    Posted 04-28-2017 03:38 PM

    Brett,

    At my previous Firm we had a person dedicated to reviewing all submittals for the team of CA's. This worked well because that dedicated person knew the specifications inside and out since the specs were mostly consistent from job to job as well as knew the areas of common problems given the building type so they knew what to pay particular attention to, this consistency of both the person and the specs sped the review process nicely. This person also would directly confer with the Project PA's and Interior dept as needed to expedite final TBD selections. If the work load for that one person was more than could be accommodated in a timely manner the CA dept would meet and work together to divide the load as needed.

     

    In my current Firm we use Newforma exclusively and the beauty of that is the entire project team is notified when the submittal is entered by the Contractor and the individual disciplines grab the submittal and post their responses ASAP so that the next discipline can build on the previous reviewers response. This allows the design team to share the work load to fit within their schedules as well as gives the designers the opportunity to learn the difference between the drawn world and the built world. The main CA on the project will then keep track of the Newforma responses as they are posted. The CA being experienced and most accustomed to the Contractors ways will then be the final review and return the completed copy back to the Contractor. Our entire project team of PA's and Consultants have a standing one hour weekly team phone call to review the status of submittals in the system and coordinate who is working on any particular piece at that time and confer for specific needs or questions that affect multiple consultants.

     

    The Newforma system works when you have Consultants that are committed to the process, this may not always be the case but the weekly status phone call helps to keep everyone's attention and the CA can monitor / manage the process rather than spend all his time reviewing submittals instead of doing what we are supposed to be doing. Reviewing the quality of the construction and being sure the contractor is building per the contract documents.

     

    I hope this helps.  

     

     

    Scott B. Wieser AIA

    Vice President / Construction Administration

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