Page 38 - Urban Construction Project Management

Project Organization 13
magnitude basis or by cost per square foot, cost per Btu of cooling or heating, and cost
per kilowatt of electrical load. Often, allowances may be made where sufficient definition
of the exact scope of certain items, such as the lobby, plaza, roof garden, and signage is
not available. In these cases, a target allowance is helpful for the entire project team to
manage the design and engineering of the area or system. The estimator will usually
work out of the home office during this phase of the project.

During the bid and award process, the estimator will be involved with developing the
list of perspective bidders, screening and finalizing the list of bidders, developing bid
packages, receiving bids, analyzing and leveling bids, recommending award of subcon-
tracts, and reviewing the bid for completeness, qualification and exclusions, and unit
prices (see Chapter 16). This is a very important and critical task; if the subcontractor is
not scoped out properly and is awarded without a complete project purchase, the amount
of change orders and claims thereafter can be significant and have a negative impact on
the project. The estimator will usually work out of the on-site project office for all phases
of the project.

During the construction phase, the estimator will be involved with pricing change
orders for bulletins, sketches, field information memos (FIMs), requests for informa-
tion (RFIs), and reviewing subcontractor’s claims for extra work as it relates to their
contracts. All allowances that may have been included in a subcontract need to be
accounted for and reconciled as the final scope of work and project is defined.

During the project close-out phase, the estimator will be finalizing all subcontractor
final contract amounts, including all base contract amounts, approved change orders,
adjustment of allowances, back charges, etc. to determine the final contract price for
each subcontractor.

Scheduler
The project scheduler is responsible for working with the project team to develop a
meaningful schedule for the project. All items that are estimated must be scheduled, and
all items of work that are scheduled must be estimated. This is a good check between
the estimator and scheduler to ensure a complete scope of work, estimate, and appro-
priate schedule. During the preconstruction phase of the project, the scheduler will
develop a conceptual schedule, which will identify the major activities and milestones
for the project, along with all of the major trades who will be performing work on the
project. As the design and construction documentation progress, the schedule will be
refined to include more detail as the sequence of each trades work in each area of
the project. A schedule will be developed during the bid and award process on which
all subcontractors will be expected to base their bid and incorporate their activities and
schedule and sequence of activities accordingly. Once the project is awarded and a con-
struction base line schedule is established, the scheduler will monitor and report on the
progress of the work, as it relates to the base line schedule. Major deviations to the
schedule will be monitored and reported on to ensure that appropriate and timely action
can be taken to correct a problem before it gets out of hand and there is insufficient time
and resources to bring the project back on schedule. The scheduler will utilize project