Schedule Delay & Disruptions

Construction schedule delays and disruptions can lead to a series of cost overruns and are a frequent source of disputes between owners, contractors, subcontractors, and design professionals. A construction delay can occur if the work or a portion of the work starts or is completed later than planned to an activity on the longest path. Understanding the root causes of the delay is critical to apportioning responsibility and navigating a successful resolution.  

Spire’s expert delay analysts specialize in construction schedule delay analysis to identify liability, validate claims, quantify damages, and assist with resolving disputes. Spire employs critical path method (CPM) techniques to identify and quantify schedule delay claims in construction using industry-standard means and methods. The selection of an appropriate analysis technique depends on numerous factors including contractual requirements, source data availability, and the complexity of the dispute. Some of the techniques Spire’s experts utilize include the following:

• Impacted As-Planned – A modeled technique that uses a baseline or planned schedule at the beginning of a project to quantify delays. The study consists of inserting an impact to the baseline schedule to analyze variances and delays.
• Collapsed As-Built or But For Analysis – A modeled technique that removes delay and disruption events from the as-built schedule to determine when the project should have been completed ‘but for’ the delay and disruption events.
• As-Planned vs. As-Built Analysis – An observational technique used to compare the baseline or as-planned schedule to the as-built schedule or a schedule update reflecting progress. This method compares planned start and finish dates with the actual start and finish dates of activities on the as-planned critical and near-critical paths.
• Time Impact Analysis (TIA) – A modeled technique used to analyze each delay and/or disruption event individually in chronological order to calculate its impact. This method quantifies each delay based on the schedule immediately before and after a delay event took place.
• Windows Analysis – An observational technique that divides the overall project duration into smaller periods, or windows, to identify and quantify the actual impact of delays or disruptions on a project. This form of analysis compares the baseline or as-planned schedule’s forecasted critical and near-critical paths at the beginning of each period to the as-built schedule or schedule update reflecting progress through the end of each period.

Construction Delay Experts

Disruptions can cause delays on a project. When disruptions are identified, Spire performs appropriate analyses to further understand productivity impacts due to project interruptions. Numerous factors are considered, including how the disruption altered the sequence of project tasks, the impact of conducting certain operations concurrently, stacking of trades in a single work area, duration compression of certain activities, and other factors that altered the planned workflow. Regardless of the cause, Spire’s construction delay and disruption experts can provide the technical expertise your project or case requires. 

Spire’s construction delay experts look to identify the type of delay (late start, extended duration, concurrent, pacing, etc.) and determine if a delay is excusable, non-excusable, compensable, and/or non-compensable. Ultimately, Spire’s experts look to determine the cause and apportion delay to the respective parties to assist in delay claims disputes. To accomplish this effort, Spire generally applies the following steps when evaluating construction delays:

• Contract analysis
• Schedule review and validation
• As-built validation and/or daily specific as-built schedule development
• Methodology selection
• Delay and disruption identification and quantification
• Causation analysis
• Apportionment
• Analysis of weather delays on construction

Spire’s construction delay and disruption experts can provide the technical expertise your project or case requires. Contact our team today to learn more about how we can help you.