The Wake County, North Carolina School Board is happy with its use of construction manager at risk for its construction projects, citing the ability to better keep projects on schedule. Some local small contractors are not pleased, though, with the board’s CM-at-Risk policy that was instituted in 2007. The county’s board of commissioners has offered a sympathetic ear to their complaints.
The key point of dispute is that under this delivery method, the construction manager prequalifies the subcontractors who can bid on the work. Some feel that as a result of this provision they are shut out of the process for work that was previously open to them.
These complaints helped lead to the passage of a state law last year requiring public entities to justify using CM-at-Risk for each project. Under this law, school staff will come back to the school board to request approval for using CM-at-Risk for most of the major projects funded by last fall’s bond issue.
At odds over this issue, the two boards have yet to reach consensus on how CM-at-Risk should be used on future school projects.
(http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/08/11/4059339/wake-county-schools-defend-use.html)
Related Stories
| Jul 12, 2012
Contractors have increasing concerns over new federal hiring quotas
A proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to increase disabled- and veteran-worker hiring quotas for federal contractors continues to raise deep concerns among contractors.
| Jul 5, 2012
Veterans Administration threatens to pull contract on new Orlando medical center
The Veterans Administration asked contractor Brasfield & Gorrie to get more workers on the job and figure out a way to get the job done faster, or the VA would pull the contract on the much-delayed Orlando VA Medical Center.
| Jul 5, 2012
Cost to contractors for new federal hiring quotas much higher than estimated, AGC says
Administration officials significantly underestimated the cost to construction employers of proposed new hiring quotas for federal contractors, according to analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America.
| Jul 5, 2012
Roof membrane could have prevented roof parking deck collapse, specialist says
The collapse of a section of a roof parking deck at the Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake in Ontario, Canada could have been prevented if the structure had a membrane, according to a concrete expert and specialist in structure analysis at McMaster University.
| Jul 5, 2012
New Joplin, Mo. hospital being built to withstand tornado that destroyed predecessor
After the May 22, 2011, EF-5 tornado destroyed St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., architects and engineers analyzed how the nine-story structure reacted to the storm.
| Jul 5, 2012
Continued tax breaks necessary for widespread adoption of net zero buildings
Tax breaks passed by the U.S. government to encourage construction of green buildings are set to expire in 2012 and 2013.
| Jun 28, 2012
Six buildings now recognized under Living Building Challenge
The Living Building Challenge (LBC), a green ratings system for design and construction that judges a building based on its actual performance, not just its projected performance at the design stage, has recognized six buildings to date.
| Jun 28, 2012
Label for building products will have ‘global warming number’
The director of the 2030 Challenge for Products says that the organization is aiming to place a label on building products that will list what’s in it, and how much embodied carbon each product represents.