Augmenting Owner's Staff with As-Needed Contracts for Large Diameter Pipeline Construction Management

In today's challenging economic environment of lean organizations and mandates to do more with less, using as-needed contracts as an aid in building effective construction management teams can help maximize staffing flexibility and competency. Large diameter pipeline construction incorporates many highly technical and specific construction techniques and skill sets, requiring quality assurance subject matter experts. On pipeline projects, in house staff experienced with materials analysis, plant and field cement mortar lining, welding, tunneling, soils analysis, schedule reviews and claims assessments may not always be available. Rather than hiring a specialized construction management firm to maintain overall responsibility of the construction phase work, blending staff from as-needed contracts with in-house staff can serve two goals. First, keep project costs down by using less expensive in-house staff to the largest extent possible and second, ensure specialty skill sets and knowledge are part of the construction management team. Having several firms on call with active as-needed contracts allows for quick response to unexpected problems without having expert staff on the team full time. This paper will examine this alternate construction management model.