The Real Costs of Fast-Track Construction

From one of our favorite writers, Julie Sturgeon, comes this nicely-done article, "Finished in a Flash."

The drivers behind this popularity are intuitive. “When you’re trying to do a big project, you really do have to go fast because you make a lot of assumptions about your financial climate and the availability of the labor force,” Merck says. UCF’s addition sprung up in a mere four-and-a-half years, from the request for bids for design and construction in August 2003 to the opening of the final piece, the arena itself, in April 2008. “If it had taken us another two years, I’m not sure we would have finished given the current financial situation,” he adds.

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That’s why the word “compromise” becomes the project watchword. It goes without saying that administrators must give up the luxury of leisurely approval times. At UCF, it meant Merck needed to take possession of a residence hall in January and let it sit empty for six months for the sake of keeping the rest of the complex on time. (Even with the subsequent operating costs, the construction savings on this timetable reduced the cost in the end, he says.)