THE MEASURED MILE

THE MEASURED MILE | ONLY ONE IMPACT EVENT?

Let’s look at a situation occurring in a Measured Mile analysis and construction direct labor productivity loss analysis wherein there’s only one excusable, compensable, Impact Event, and the unimpacted and impacted periods of craft labor performance or construction trade performance are relatively easy to identify:

GULF COAST UNION PROCESS PIPING CREW

Unimpacted Period of Performance

A Gulf Coast union process piping crew (journeyman welder, pipe fitter, and an apprentice helper) on a refinery project was assigned to fabricate large bore, 8-inch, Schedule 80 carbon steel process piping during the winter in an indoor fab shop with controlled temperatures. The crew worked for a few weeks in solitude with absolutely no drawing changes or unanticipated outside impacts to their work and accomplished the budgeted rate of 150 weld-inches per day.

Impacted Period of Performance

This piping crew’s work was then moved to a nearby outdoor fab shop, where they worked for a few weeks with absolutely no outside impacts to their work, other than cold temperatures. Their outdoor weld productivity was reduced to 125 weld-inches per day, and the cost subaccount experienced a labor cost overrun of approximately 20%.

In this example, one week in the indoor fab shop might be used as the Measured Mile, and the contractor might argue that the entire cost overrun was caused solely by the decision to move the work to an outdoor fab shop.

Disputes in Construction – Holloway Consulting