Construction Contract Administration

I agree completely. I feel as if every project that starts construction I need to educate the construction team how to number submittals, how to route submittals, that they need to actually review a submittal (not just rubber stamp it and pass it through), how to write an RFI that makes sense to the receiver (and why that is important), etc.  The list is endless. I do not see this improving either. Unfortunately while the era of "electronic" submittals has helped us all, there are facets of this that need to be fixed.  

I would love to hear how others are dealing with this problem - I cannot believe it is only happening to us.  

Dan Piper, Principal, Construction Administration

The Preston Partnership, LLC

I agree completely. I feel as if every project that starts construction I need to educate the construction team how to number submittals, how to route submittals, that they need to actually review a submittal (not just rubber stamp it and pass it through), how to write an RFI that makes sense to the receiver (and why that is important), etc.  The list is endless. I do not see this improving either. Unfortunately while the era of "electronic" submittals has helped us all, there are facets of this that need to be fixed.  

I would love to hear how others are dealing with this problem - I cannot believe it is only happening to us.  

Dan Piper, Principal, Construction Administration

The Preston Partnership, LLC

Consider adding in your Division 01 specifications (Section 011000* or 013000*) a qualification that the Construction Manager's Project Coordinator or the Contractor's Project Administrator have at least a Construction Document Technologist (CDT), or better yet Certified Construction Contract Administrator (CCCA) certification from CSI.

(When you ask for their certification at project kickoff meeting, you'll quickly find out if they even read Division 01 :-)

Until Architects demand this, we'll all continue to waste time in the CA phase training them.

And by the way, it would be good to get yours too!

Consider adding in your Division 01 specifications (Section 011000* or 013000*) a qualification that the Construction Manager's Project Coordinator or the Contractor's Project Administrator have at least a Construction Document Technologist (CDT), or better yet Certified Construction Contract Administrator (CCCA) certification from CSI.

(When you ask for their certification at project kickoff meeting, you'll quickly find out if they even read Division 01 :-)

Until Architects demand this, we'll all continue to waste time in the CA phase training them.

And by the way, it would be good to get yours too!

I agree completely. I feel as if every project that starts construction I need to educate the construction team how to number submittals, how to route submittals, that they need to actually review a submittal (not just rubber stamp it and pass it through), how to write an RFI that makes sense to the receiver (and why that is important), etc.  The list is endless. I do not see this improving either. Unfortunately while the era of "electronic" submittals has helped us all, there are facets of this that need to be fixed.  

I would love to hear how others are dealing with this problem - I cannot believe it is only happening to us.  

Dan Piper, Principal, Construction Administration

The Preston Partnership, LLC

I do wish we could include the requirements suggested by Mr. Koppy that the Contractor's personnel have the certifications offered by CSI. Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel. In the absence of these qualifications, I strongly recommend that the construction team read the specifications - no matter how foreign a concept this is. That includes the architect, who should enforce the requirements for a well-attended preconstruction meeting (013100 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION) where submittal requirements are to be reviewed. We've helped quite a few of our architect clients' young project architects navigate their first CA assignment by walking them through Division 01 General Requirements. 013100 even includes an agenda for their meeting. You can't enforce requirements if you do not know they are there. And you are not required to certify payments to the Contractor if they are not fulfilling the requirements of the Contract Documents. 

Philip, Do not understand your comment "Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel."

Do we not specify many requirements for the qualifications of the installers to execute the work in Divisions 02-49?

How is that different from the specifying qualifications for the execution of the work defined in Division 01 - General Requirements?

Please clarify.

Don

I do wish we could include the requirements suggested by Mr. Koppy that the Contractor's personnel have the certifications offered by CSI. Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel. In the absence of these qualifications, I strongly recommend that the construction team read the specifications - no matter how foreign a concept this is. That includes the architect, who should enforce the requirements for a well-attended preconstruction meeting (013100 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION) where submittal requirements are to be reviewed. We've helped quite a few of our architect clients' young project architects navigate their first CA assignment by walking them through Division 01 General Requirements. 013100 even includes an agenda for their meeting. You can't enforce requirements if you do not know they are there. And you are not required to certify payments to the Contractor if they are not fulfilling the requirements of the Contract Documents. 

Donald: When we include qualification requirements such as ACI certifications, NRCA Cert qualifications, etc., we must make some effort to ensure that those qualifications are adequately present in the marketplace. Otherwise there are going to be time-consuming RFIs or disputes down the road. The case can be made for something like "CSI CCCA cerfication or comparable qualifications acceptable to Architect" which would work provided we knew what it meant. There would not be time between issuing a bid set and commencing work for an unqualified staff member to obtain the training. And a first-year field engineer could study and pass the CCCA but still not bring the experience needed. I like the idea of alerting the industry to these excellent certification programs, but we would need to stipulate more than one option for providing the personnel we need. Maybe start with "grey hair?" 

Philip, Do not understand your comment "Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel."

Do we not specify many requirements for the qualifications of the installers to execute the work in Divisions 02-49?

How is that different from the specifying qualifications for the execution of the work defined in Division 01 - General Requirements?

Please clarify.

Don

Donald: When we include qualification requirements such as ACI certifications, NRCA Cert qualifications, etc., we must make some effort to ensure that those qualifications are adequately present in the marketplace. Otherwise there are going to be time-consuming RFIs or disputes down the road. The case can be made for something like "CSI CCCA cerfication or comparable qualifications acceptable to Architect" which would work provided we knew what it meant. There would not be time between issuing a bid set and commencing work for an unqualified staff member to obtain the training. And a first-year field engineer could study and pass the CCCA but still not bring the experience needed. I like the idea of alerting the industry to these excellent certification programs, but we would need to stipulate more than one option for providing the personnel we need. Maybe start with "grey hair?" 

Philip, Do not understand your comment "Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel."

Do we not specify many requirements for the qualifications of the installers to execute the work in Divisions 02-49?

How is that different from the specifying qualifications for the execution of the work defined in Division 01 - General Requirements?

Please clarify.

Don

I do wish we could include the requirements suggested by Mr. Koppy that the Contractor's personnel have the certifications offered by CSI. Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel. In the absence of these qualifications, I strongly recommend that the construction team read the specifications - no matter how foreign a concept this is. That includes the architect, who should enforce the requirements for a well-attended preconstruction meeting (013100 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION) where submittal requirements are to be reviewed. We've helped quite a few of our architect clients' young project architects navigate their first CA assignment by walking them through Division 01 General Requirements. 013100 even includes an agenda for their meeting. You can't enforce requirements if you do not know they are there. And you are not required to certify payments to the Contractor if they are not fulfilling the requirements of the Contract Documents. 

Philip, Agree with the grey-hair spec, but I'm still missing something here.  The only reason ACI, NCRA, and all the other certifications we require exist in the construction industry marketplace is because we specified them!  The Contractors don't get these certs during bidding, they have people already certified.  

Once we specify CDT/CCCA as a requirement, they will become commonplace. Just like LEED Certifications became commonplace almost overnight in our slow-to-evolve construction industry!

Donald: When we include qualification requirements such as ACI certifications, NRCA Cert qualifications, etc., we must make some effort to ensure that those qualifications are adequately present in the marketplace. Otherwise there are going to be time-consuming RFIs or disputes down the road. The case can be made for something like "CSI CCCA cerfication or comparable qualifications acceptable to Architect" which would work provided we knew what it meant. There would not be time between issuing a bid set and commencing work for an unqualified staff member to obtain the training. And a first-year field engineer could study and pass the CCCA but still not bring the experience needed. I like the idea of alerting the industry to these excellent certification programs, but we would need to stipulate more than one option for providing the personnel we need. Maybe start with "grey hair?" 

Philip, Do not understand your comment "Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel."

Do we not specify many requirements for the qualifications of the installers to execute the work in Divisions 02-49?

How is that different from the specifying qualifications for the execution of the work defined in Division 01 - General Requirements?

Please clarify.

Don

I do wish we could include the requirements suggested by Mr. Koppy that the Contractor's personnel have the certifications offered by CSI. Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel. In the absence of these qualifications, I strongly recommend that the construction team read the specifications - no matter how foreign a concept this is. That includes the architect, who should enforce the requirements for a well-attended preconstruction meeting (013100 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION) where submittal requirements are to be reviewed. We've helped quite a few of our architect clients' young project architects navigate their first CA assignment by walking them through Division 01 General Requirements. 013100 even includes an agenda for their meeting. You can't enforce requirements if you do not know they are there. And you are not required to certify payments to the Contractor if they are not fulfilling the requirements of the Contract Documents. 

Donald: I'm all for giving this a try. We just have to figure out the equitable way of getting there and give adequate warning to the local industry that this is coming. We accomplished a similar effort in North Carolina years back by requiring certified Firestopping installers when we got tired of projects failing a CO. 

Philip, Agree with the grey-hair spec, but I'm still missing something here.  The only reason ACI, NCRA, and all the other certifications we require exist in the construction industry marketplace is because we specified them!  The Contractors don't get these certs during bidding, they have people already certified.  

Once we specify CDT/CCCA as a requirement, they will become commonplace. Just like LEED Certifications became commonplace almost overnight in our slow-to-evolve construction industry!

Donald: When we include qualification requirements such as ACI certifications, NRCA Cert qualifications, etc., we must make some effort to ensure that those qualifications are adequately present in the marketplace. Otherwise there are going to be time-consuming RFIs or disputes down the road. The case can be made for something like "CSI CCCA cerfication or comparable qualifications acceptable to Architect" which would work provided we knew what it meant. There would not be time between issuing a bid set and commencing work for an unqualified staff member to obtain the training. And a first-year field engineer could study and pass the CCCA but still not bring the experience needed. I like the idea of alerting the industry to these excellent certification programs, but we would need to stipulate more than one option for providing the personnel we need. Maybe start with "grey hair?" 

Philip, Do not understand your comment "Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel."

Do we not specify many requirements for the qualifications of the installers to execute the work in Divisions 02-49?

How is that different from the specifying qualifications for the execution of the work defined in Division 01 - General Requirements?

Please clarify.

Don

Donald: I'm all for giving this a try. We just have to figure out the equitable way of getting there and give adequate warning to the local industry that this is coming. We accomplished a similar effort in North Carolina years back by requiring certified Firestopping installers when we got tired of projects failing a CO. 

Philip, Agree with the grey-hair spec, but I'm still missing something here.  The only reason ACI, NCRA, and all the other certifications we require exist in the construction industry marketplace is because we specified them!  The Contractors don't get these certs during bidding, they have people already certified.  

Once we specify CDT/CCCA as a requirement, they will become commonplace. Just like LEED Certifications became commonplace almost overnight in our slow-to-evolve construction industry!

Donald: When we include qualification requirements such as ACI certifications, NRCA Cert qualifications, etc., we must make some effort to ensure that those qualifications are adequately present in the marketplace. Otherwise there are going to be time-consuming RFIs or disputes down the road. The case can be made for something like "CSI CCCA cerfication or comparable qualifications acceptable to Architect" which would work provided we knew what it meant. There would not be time between issuing a bid set and commencing work for an unqualified staff member to obtain the training. And a first-year field engineer could study and pass the CCCA but still not bring the experience needed. I like the idea of alerting the industry to these excellent certification programs, but we would need to stipulate more than one option for providing the personnel we need. Maybe start with "grey hair?" 

Philip, Do not understand your comment "Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel."

Do we not specify many requirements for the qualifications of the installers to execute the work in Divisions 02-49?

How is that different from the specifying qualifications for the execution of the work defined in Division 01 - General Requirements?

Please clarify.

Don

I do wish we could include the requirements suggested by Mr. Koppy that the Contractor's personnel have the certifications offered by CSI. Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel. In the absence of these qualifications, I strongly recommend that the construction team read the specifications - no matter how foreign a concept this is. That includes the architect, who should enforce the requirements for a well-attended preconstruction meeting (013100 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION) where submittal requirements are to be reviewed. We've helped quite a few of our architect clients' young project architects navigate their first CA assignment by walking them through Division 01 General Requirements. 013100 even includes an agenda for their meeting. You can't enforce requirements if you do not know they are there. And you are not required to certify payments to the Contractor if they are not fulfilling the requirements of the Contract Documents. 

I do wish we could include the requirements suggested by Mr. Koppy that the Contractor's personnel have the certifications offered by CSI. Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel. In the absence of these qualifications, I strongly recommend that the construction team read the specifications - no matter how foreign a concept this is. That includes the architect, who should enforce the requirements for a well-attended preconstruction meeting (013100 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION) where submittal requirements are to be reviewed. We've helped quite a few of our architect clients' young project architects navigate their first CA assignment by walking them through Division 01 General Requirements. 013100 even includes an agenda for their meeting. You can't enforce requirements if you do not know they are there. And you are not required to certify payments to the Contractor if they are not fulfilling the requirements of the Contract Documents. 

I do wish we could include the requirements suggested by Mr. Koppy that the Contractor's personnel have the certifications offered by CSI. Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel. In the absence of these qualifications, I strongly recommend that the construction team read the specifications - no matter how foreign a concept this is. That includes the architect, who should enforce the requirements for a well-attended preconstruction meeting (013100 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION) where submittal requirements are to be reviewed. We've helped quite a few of our architect clients' young project architects navigate their first CA assignment by walking them through Division 01 General Requirements. 013100 even includes an agenda for their meeting. You can't enforce requirements if you do not know they are there. And you are not required to certify payments to the Contractor if they are not fulfilling the requirements of the Contract Documents. 

I do wish we could include the requirements suggested by Mr. Koppy that the Contractor's personnel have the certifications offered by CSI. Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel. In the absence of these qualifications, I strongly recommend that the construction team read the specifications - no matter how foreign a concept this is. That includes the architect, who should enforce the requirements for a well-attended preconstruction meeting (013100 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION) where submittal requirements are to be reviewed. We've helped quite a few of our architect clients' young project architects navigate their first CA assignment by walking them through Division 01 General Requirements. 013100 even includes an agenda for their meeting. You can't enforce requirements if you do not know they are there. And you are not required to certify payments to the Contractor if they are not fulfilling the requirements of the Contract Documents. 

I do wish we could include the requirements suggested by Mr. Koppy that the Contractor's personnel have the certifications offered by CSI. Alas, it is not a best practice to specify requirements we cannot demand and obtain, even if it would be in the Contractor's interest to have adequately educated and trained personnel. In the absence of these qualifications, I strongly recommend that the construction team read the specifications - no matter how foreign a concept this is. That includes the architect, who should enforce the requirements for a well-attended preconstruction meeting (013100 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION) where submittal requirements are to be reviewed. We've helped quite a few of our architect clients' young project architects navigate their first CA assignment by walking them through Division 01 General Requirements. 013100 even includes an agenda for their meeting. You can't enforce requirements if you do not know they are there. And you are not required to certify payments to the Contractor if they are not fulfilling the requirements of the Contract Documents. 

Having spent half my career in design/build, it was paramount to create an efficient process to handle construction administrative tasks and negate wasted time/effort and associated schedule delays. Having a trained project administrator was key to creating this efficiency.

Don't see how requiring a CSI certified/trained individual administrate submittals and RFI's is any different from having an Autodesk-certified VDC Manager administrate the process to handle the Drawings/Models, a project scheduler have certification in their CPM software, or a USGBC certified person administrate LEED requirements.

The AIA was formed back in late 19th century specifically to address the diminishing influence of our architecture profession, due to the contractors' (specifically design/builders') growing control of Owners.  Maybe the AIA members have become too distracted by other causes to remember that and are willing to forego our seat at the OAC table.  Especially when it comes to project management and construction administration.

If we want to improve our profession, we need to take back our seat.

Don't worry so much about the lack of skills in the marketplace.  Discover how to make money because of it.