7 Ways to Keep Control Over Large Construction Projects

You’ve been building your business credibility and finally landed a contract on your first really big construction job. This is a win, but also a huge responsibility that you want to get right on the first try. These tips show you how to keep the project’s size and scope from running away with your time and money.

    1. Prioritize Important Factors in Advance

Although the mantra “on time and under budget” may be already ingrained in your memory, there are many factors in a construction project that could hold just as much sway in your planning. As you begin to design and formulate a plan for construction, you should ask yourself the following questions:

• What if the money runs out before the project is complete?
• How can I prepare for possible delays?
• Which aspects of the project are most crucial to the overall success of the development?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you to avoid ignoring vital concerns for the sake of getting the project completed.

    2. Get Experts to the Design Table

Too many projects encounter expensive changes in design or delays in construction because the original plan failed to take certain factors into consideration, which require a level of expertise. Traditionally, many construction managers decided to involve experts in specific services only when their input was needed. People are now realizing the benefit of getting all those professionals together to give input before the design is complete.

     3. Select the Most Appropriate Delivery Method

As you prepare to offer up a design plan, you will work with the property owner to determine the most practical and effective delivery method. Common methods include:

• Design-Build, where one organization provides the complete project from start to finish
• Design-Bid-Build, with separate processes for designing, bidding on the project and then building it
• Construction Manager at-Risk, when the construction manager assumes the risk for the project given a guaranteed maximum price
• Multi-Prime, where the owner contracts individually with different agencies

The choice affects the risk you assume, as well as how much control you personally retain over the project.

     4. Hire a Third Party to Monitor Progress

People are human, and they can get too invested in the project to realize when some process needs to change. In any job that’s larger in scale, it can be very useful to bring in an unaffiliated expert to analyze the project details and keep everyone on-track. This person can identify possible sources of conflict at each stage of the project, bring up concerns that were not addressed in original planning, and focus the project on its highest-priority goals.

     5. Automate Communication, Documentation and Reporting

These days, plenty of people do their business from their smartphones, and you can take advantage of this technology. There is no need to wait on paperwork or people returning the results of a report when much of this information can be easily automated. Discover many tools commonly used in the industry to simplify your administrative duties.

     6. Understand Time Limitations

Practical time management is one of the biggest skills you will develop in this arena. Noting which aspects of the project are interdependent can help you to minimize one delay turning into several delays that extend your project out months. Work to correctly estimate and maximize timely delivery of each part, and you will have an easier time meeting the delivery date.

     7. Balance Risk Propositions for All Parties

In many sectors of the construction industry, margins are kept fairly tight. This means that dramatically underestimating your business’s financial obligations in the project could put you deeply into the red. Placing too much risk on one person or business could significantly increase the price of the project, or even cause it to fail. Identify the individual risks that every involved party faces for the project’s completion, and work to spread out that risk so that everyone has a moderate degree of protection.

Moving up in business to earn the bids for large infrastructure projects should be a win, and it can be. With careful attention to all your responsibilities, you can set reasonable goals that you have a good chance of achieving. To start on the path to success in your construction business, visit CSLS today!