The Pioneer Generation Station and Lonesome Creek Station are two natural gas-fired peaking power plants in Western North Dakota. Both plants consist of three units with 45 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity each. Basin Electric Power Cooperative retained Wanzek Construction as a prime contractor for Unit I of Pioneer Generation Station and Lonesome Creek Station. The $20.4 million Pioneer Generation Station Unit I was contractually required to achieve commercial operation on March 30, 2013. The $19.4 million Lonesome Creek Station Unit I was contractually required to achieve commercial operation on May 30, 2013. However, numerous delays occurred during the projects, and the commercial operation dates were not reached, resulting in a dispute between Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Wanzek Construction.
Pioneer Generation Station Unit I achieved commercial operation on September 4, 2013, and Lonesome Creek Station Unit I reached commercial operation on November 8, 2013. In February 2014, McLaughlin & McLaughlin retained Spire to assist with the schedule delay analysis on behalf of Wanzek Construction for the Lonesome Creek Station and Pioneer Generation Station project. Spire assisted in performing a time impact analysis (TIA) to quantify and allocate the days of delay during each project. In addition, Spire developed time impact narratives and a presentation of findings, including demonstrative aids for each project.
Spire’s experts specialize in analyzing construction delays and disruptions to identify liability, validate claims, quantify damages, and assist with resolving disputes. Spire employs critical path method (CPM) techniques to identify and quantify schedule delays using standard industry means and methods. One of the techniques Spire’s experts utilize is Time Impact Analysis (TIA). – Spire leverages this modeled technique 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.