ESTUDIO DE MERCADO

Most large transit construction projects require contractors to provide detailed schedules for their work to the project’s controls group in a format compatible with the scheduling software used by that group. The information needed to evaluate progress, including labor loading charts and equipment schedules, should be specified in project directives and contract bid documents. Project organizations should submit a schedule update and supporting data to the control office monthly. The updated network diagram should be prepared in accordance with the following:

 All activities should be updated and reported on as of the same date.

 The updated logic schedule report should discuss completed activities, any revision of the logical sequence of the activities, and the critical path of activities based on the current update.

 The supporting data for the updated schedule should include a listing of the actual starting dates for each activity in progress and actual starting and completion dates for all completed activities. In addition, an analysis of changes to expected completion dates should be included that identifies which activities contributed to the changed completion date and why.

 The supporting data also should contain all information needed to indicate the current status of the project, such as design policy memoranda or other technical data issued by the Project Sponsor or its representative, design/development progress in prime contracts and specialty procurement contracts which necessitates revision to current contracts, changes required by utility companies or local agencies during the course of construction, finalization or revision of agreements between the Project Sponsor and public agencies, revisions to ROW agreements, and revisions necessary to accommodate changed or unforeseen field conditions or changes at interfaces of adjacent contracts.

FTA provides guidelines for coordinating and monitoring contractor schedules that should be incorporated into contract specifications:

 Review of Project Management Control Systems on Selected FTA Funded Projects [Ref. 3-21].

 Schedule control during the Procurement and Construction phases is generally the most difficult. This is because there are usually several contractors performing work on different elements of the project, often with overlapping work areas involving different trades. Controlling or monitoring the schedule performance of more than one contractor involves more effort than monitoring the status of a single design consultant's work.

 Contractor schedules should be compatible with the scheduling software utilized by the Project Sponsor. Contractors should be required to submit copies of the schedule in electronic format. Ease of integration is important to maintaining the Project Master Schedule with current contractor schedule data. All contractor updates should be integrated and checked for impacts to other project elements within the Project Master Schedule. When contractors submit monthly CPM updates, all milestone dates should be checked to determine that they are within the contract parameters and whether the dates scheduled are attainable based on the contract status.

 Schedules are generally submitted in more than one part. One part consists of a schedule indicating the work to be performed during the first 60 to 90 days of the contract. This submittal is usually required to be presented within two weeks of notice-to-proceed.

 Between 45 and 60 days, an additional schedule submittal is made that encompasses the full contract duration and includes a breakdown of all activities to a level of detail specified in the contract documents. Updates and narrative reports concerning the updates and schedule status are usually required on a monthly basis.

 Receiving the initial CPM submittals and updates in a timely manner is important to the development and maintenance of the IMPS. Enforcement provisions within the contract scheduling specifications help agencies ensure the information flow necessary to keep the IMPS current, making them a useful tool for managing the project. The most common enforcement provision gives Project Sponsors the option to withhold progress payments pending submittal of acceptable CPM schedules and updates in accordance with the contract. Progress payments are generally based on updates of the contractor’s cost loaded CPM schedule. Without an acceptable schedule status update, progress payments should not be made. An alternative schedule submittal enforcement provision is model that requires a separate bid item with specified minimum bid amounts for schedule submittal. Portions of this bid item are withheld and forfeited for untimely or missing schedule submittals.

 The WBS on which the bid and contract's schedule is based should be adequate for the project. The optimum level of detail is dependent upon the complexity and needs of a particular project. Cost loading of the contractor's CPM schedule should be tied to the bid breakdown, which is generally tied to the WBS.

 Requiring cost loaded CPM schedules provides an increased ability to monitor the status of a contract, specifically the progression of the work and the corresponding expenditures. Also, the completion date for the contract and cost to complete can be monitored. The larger the contract, the more useful and practical the process and the greater the benefits derived. For a smaller project, the required cost-loaded schedule could be difficult to prepare, maintain, and administer due to the need for full-time experts in scheduling personnel on both the contractor and construction management staff.

 Project Sponsors may prefer to award contracts on a lump sum or unit price basis. Cost loading a lump sum contract CPM requires allocating percentages of the various bid line items to particular activities. Monitoring and updating is based on incremental percentages of each item that make up the lump sum bid price. To facilitate progress payments, it is helpful to require that activities be 100 percent completed before being eligible for the release of payment. This effectively of shortens the contractor's activity durations to promote payments that closely match the work in place. Verification of 100 percent completion of activities is also easier than estimating or measuring incremental portions thereof.

 On unit price contracts, the activities are tied to costs associated with unit price quantities. Quantity overruns and underruns must be monitored so that accurate indications of the project’s status are maintained.

 CPM scheduling enables the Project Sponsor to maintain its IMPS. Each IMPS has a critical path of its own that must be closely monitored to complete the project within the established time constraints. Each IMPS has a critical path that may traverse activities on several individual contracts throughout the total project duration. The Project Sponsor's designation or recognition of critical project elements is important in the project control process.

 Where elements of a particular WBS within individual contracts or contract completion dates are crucial to the execution of a project, contract milestones must be established and incorporated into the contract documents. These include milestones required for the work by other follow-on contracts to proceed. These crucial milestones normally become the basis for the critical path of the individual contracts. A major benefit of contractor CPM schedule requirements is the ability of the Project Sponsor to monitor the progress of the contractor on the critical path. Progress on the critical path means progress toward contract milestone or completion dates that may impact the project’s completion if not successfully met.

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into the Project IMPS benefits the _{and Schedule Control} Project Sponsor, who should

The Earned Value (EV) concept, first require that the software utilized by

developed in the aerospace industry, has the contractor in developing its

proven effective on other types of CPM schedule is compatible with

engineering projects across the nation. It the Project Sponsor’s. The Project

provides the capability for the routine and Sponsor should also require

in-depth analysis of project status from contractors to provide electronic

an integrated cost/schedule perspective. copies of all schedule submittals to

The implementation of the EV concept is facilitate integrating the contractors’

one means to improve management of CPM schedule submittals and

the project by allowing use of more updates into the IMPS.

effective project control information.  Monitoring the contractor's CPM

schedule includes monitoring its critical path. Where critical path activities fall behind by a specified

number of calendar days of meeting a milestone or the contract completion date, a recovery schedule should be required for the contractor to establish a plan for accelerating or adjusting its schedule in order to meet the specified milestone or contract completion date.

 All milestones or contract completion dates critical to the project completion should have commensurate penalties (liquidated damages) established for failure to meet the contractually mandated schedule. To truly enforce liquidated damages, there should be a bonus clause for early completion of commensurate value.

3.5 Controlling the Project