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the association for the advancement of cost engineering |
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North Florida Section |
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Regular meetings held on third Thursdays, except during summer months, unless otherwise noted. Everyone is welcome, membership is not required. |
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U.S. Green Building Council and LEED Accreditation/Certification with speaker Kristy M. Walson, PE, LEED AP
Program:
What is the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and what are its resources and activities? What is LEED accreditation/certification and its benefits to cost and construction engineering? You’ll learn that and more in this presentation from a USGBC and LEED industry expert. With the growing relevance of environmentally conscious engineering and construction, learning how to plan, cost and manage the newest green building technologies is becoming critical to a project’s success.
LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. It provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.
Speaker:
· Kristy M. Walson, PE, LEED AP is employed by TLC Engineering for Architecture (corporate headquarters in Orlando) as a LEED/Sustainability Consultant and Mechanical Engineer specializing in HVAC design. She has extensive experience with performing energy models for buildings attempting LEED certification. She is also currently the LEED Project Team Administrator for over 10 LEED projects. In addition to her time spent at TLC, Ms. Walson also sits on the Board of Directors for the Central Florida Chapter of the US Green Building Council and is the current Secretary for the chapter. She is also the chapter Director of Education and works to offer members educational opportunities relating to LEED accreditation and maintenance.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $5.00 per person with advance reservations. |
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Timely Time Extensions: An Owner’s Duty, with speaker John P. Orr, PSP
Program:
Construction contracts specify that an owner will grant time extensions for excusable delays. Courts and contract appeal boards have added an implied obligation requiring the owner to grant time extensions in a timely manner. Failure to issue time extensions for excusable delays distorts CPM schedule update projections and may result in claims for constructive acceleration. It is a strong indication of potential scheduling disputes and subsequent litigation.
Despite the obligation to grant time extensions in a timely manner, owners frequently fail to do so, for various reasons. Lack of expertise in schedule time impact analysis, low confidence in the schedule’s accuracy, or a belief that the project will recover on its own (what Samuel Johnson called, “the triumph of hope over experience”) can prevent owners from addressing time extensions properly.
This presentation will evaluate the reasons owners frequently fail to address time extensions in a timely manner, and provide guidance for the owner’s project management team as well as to all cost engineers working with time extensions.
Speaker:
· John P. Orr, PSP, Senior Scheduling Engineer, URS Corporation
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $5.00 per person with advance reservations. |
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Front-End Engineering Design: Influence Over a Project’s Outcome with speaker J.D. (Jim) Whiteside, II, PE
Program:
Project management needs to know how much of the total installed cost of a project is spent on front-end engineering and design (FEED) when developing a project in order to set a budget. The answer is normally expressed as a percent of the total installed cost, which is converted into a budget of engineering hours. Statistical percentages are acceptable for comparative purposes like benchmarking, but statistical percentages are not a substitute for estimating or establishing a budget of activities to be performed.
This presentation focuses on identifying the FEED characteristics that are common among competitive projects. Characteristics such as duration and hours for engineering and project management activities are compared to predictability and performance metrics for cost and schedule. A slate of projects is examined, and it is discovered that project success is driven by the type of engineering performed in FEED. This study proves that FEED duration and management FEED hours are key drivers to project cost and schedule competitiveness and predictability.
Speaker:
· J.D. (Jim) Whiteside, II, PE is Benchmarking Team Supervisor with ConocoPhillips Project Development and Project Services. He is also an AACEi International Technical Board member and AACEi Chair of the Cost Engineering Journal Review Committee. Mr. Whiteside graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He has 32 years of experience as a cost engineering consultant specializing in Benchmarking. He recently presented a paper at the 2010 AACEi Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $10.00 per person with advance reservations. |
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Planning a Complex Project: An Under Appreciated Effort with speaker Chris W. Carson, PSP, CCM, PMP
Program:
Planning a complex project is one of the most under appreciated efforts in the construction industry today. Based on the experience in the dispute resolution industry it is often a poorly executed element of a project. One of the main reasons for this is that many organizations do not understand the true value of a well devised plan and consequently do not spend the effort required to make a good plan.
Many organizations have forgotten “how” to plan a project. A project manager sitting down in his/her office with a person who knows how to work Primavera or Microsoft Project and making a schedule is not truly planning. This approach rarely works. More often than not, it produces a schedule that the project team ignores because of it being inaccurate, and this shallow process does not promote ownership of the schedule.
This presentation will attempt to explain how to plan a complex project, and will be of value not only to planners and schedulers, but to all cost engineers.
Speaker:
· Christopher W. Carson, CCM, PSP, PMP
Chris Carson is Corporate Director of Project Controls for Alpha Corporation, a professional engineering/construction firm providing engineering design and CM services based in Norfolk, VA.
Chris has over 38 years of experience in educational, municipal, commercial, industrial, governmental, and residential projects, buildings as well as infrastructure and site work; including projects with complex phasing and stringent time constraint requirements. He has a strong background in all phases of construction management, combined with deep experience in critical path method scheduling, prospective and forensic schedule analysis, cost estimating, and dispute resolution.
He is active in numerous industry professional associations, including the PMI (Project Management Institute) College of Scheduling, the PMI CoS SEI (Scheduling Excellence Initiative) and AACEi.
He is a CMAA Certified Construction Manager (CCM), an AACEi Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP), and a PMI Project Management Professional (PMP). Presenting at CMAA, AACE, DBIA, and PMI College of Scheduling conferences, Chris received a 2009 College of Scheduling award for “Significant Contributions to the Scheduling Industry”, earned “Best Paper in the Scheduling Track” at the 2006 AACEi national conference, and received the “Chairman’s Award” from CMAA in 2006. He recently presented a paper at the 2010 AACEi Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $5.00 per person with advance reservations. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org.
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Changing the Boundaries of Client/Contractor Shared Risk with speaker Douglas A. Findley, CCC, EVP, PSP, CFCC
Program:
The construction contract is the instrument that attempts to assign responsibility for each project risk. Those risks, which are not expressly assigned to the owner or contractor, fall into the category of shared risks. Shared risks are most often where contractors and owners find they have a dispute on the extent of their responsibility. The AACE International Recommended Practice for Forensic Schedule Analysis is called upon to provide a proper process in the analysis of a contractor’s delay claim with an impact to the critical path.
This presentation finds that many owners do not require realistic baseline schedules be submitted for the owner’s approval. When the contract language causes the contractor to submit a baseline schedule that is unrealistic, its use in the recommended forensic process is seriously impacted. If the contractor is not required to maintain a contemporaneous schedule, the forensic analysis may be dealt a death blow. Both owners and contractors need to understand the risks they share when contract language does not require realistic and executable schedules.
Speaker:
· Douglas A. Findley, CCC, EVP, PSP, CFCC, Business Control Solutions, LLC. Mr. Findley received a BBA in Management and Organizational Behavior Management from the University of Houston and an MS in Technology and Project Management from the University of Maryland. His many professional certifications include P3e/P6 Instructor by ETI, PMP from the Project Management Institute, CCC, PSP, EVP and CFCC from AACEi, and CCM from the Construction Management Association of America.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $5.00 per person with advance reservations. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org. |
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Ecological and Environmental Considerations for Cost Estimating Development Projects with speakers Jay H. Exum, Ph.D., AECOM Principal Ecologist and Paul S. Newman, AECOM Vice President.
Program:
No matter what type of construction project you work on, some of the primary considerations for cost engineers must be the environmental impact, risks and costs. Whether you’re an estimator, planner and scheduler, or cost control manager, knowing how to assess and manage the various ecological and environmental factors is critically important to the success of the project.
Our co-speakers, AECOM’s Dr. Jay Exum and Mr. Paul Newman, are uniquely qualified to address these complex issues. In their presentation, they will discuss the most important points relating to ecological and environmental constraints in development and redevelopment projects.
Their program will include ecological considerations such as wetlands, habitat, threatened and endangered species, and water quality. Environmental factors will include historical contamination, remediation and restoration, and environmental cleanup. A question-and-answer period will follow, so bring your environmental risk, cost and planning/scheduling problems to discuss.
Speakers:
Jay H. Exum, Ph.D., Principal Ecologist for AECOM, has 25 years of experience in wildlife ecology. With a B.A. in Zoology and an M.S. in Wildlife Management, he specializes in wetland and wildlife habitats in the Southeast. His experience includes extensive involvement with wetland delineation, the assessment of wetland functions, hydrological analysis, impact assessment, storm water and land use issues related to TMDL and BMAP, mitigation planning and design.
Having evaluated thousands of acres of wetlands, primarily in Florida, Dr. Exum is experienced with numerous impact assessment methodologies used to define wetland function and wildlife habitat for wetland dependent species. He has created wetland mitigation banks, and defined wetland enhancement and restoration projects. He has delineated and mapped wetlands for numerous large-scale clients and provided management strategies to improve their function and restore hydrology and natural vegetation over time.
He has been involved with permits at local, state and federal levels that have defined wetland extent, assessed impacts, and provided mitigation through restoration and enhancement of natural systems. He has worked with local, state and federal agencies to provide long-term strategies for conservation and management of natural systems including extensive wetland and floodplain areas, and has assisted dozens of private clients in the review of wetland systems and the attainment of permits for proposed development activities.
Dr. Exum has also worked on dozens of storm water management projects relating to water quality improvement on new and retrofit developments, and facilitated the Lake Tohopekaliga Environmental Working Group, which was formed to devise innovative storm water strategies to meet TMDL objectives and improve water quality in the basin of this impaired water body.
Paul S. Newman is Vice President, Southeast Regional Practice Area Leader - Remediation Consulting & Engineering at AECOM Environment. He has 25 years of experience in exploration and environmental restoration plus an M.S. in Mineral Exploration Geology and a B.S. in Geology.
Mr. Newman is responsible for the operations of the Environment business line of AECOM in central and North Florida. He is also the Remediation Consulting & Engineering Practice Area Leader for the southeast US. He is a geologist whose career has been largely focused on the environmental assessment and remediation of sites impacted by a variety of contaminants, including petroleum, metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this capacity he has worked on behalf of developers, manufacturing companies, defense contractors, state agencies, and petroleum companies.
The scale of projects that Mr. Newman has directed ranges from small due diligence (i.e., Phase I and Phase II) assessments to large refinery decommissioning and wetland restoration projects. He is experienced in technology screening and estimating the cost of environmental remediation activities. Costs are profoundly impacted by remedies, schedules, closure endpoints desired, and regulatory frameworks.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $10.00 per person with advance reservations. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org. |
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Conventional vs. Modular Design: What Cost Engineers Need to Know with speaker Raju Amin, Project Engineer, Siemens Energy, Inc.
Program: What’s the next big thing in commercial and industrial building construction? One of them is the coming wave of modular design installations. As cost engineers, you’ll need to know how modulars fit into current construction designs, whether they are in commercial, industrial or governmental projects. What are the benefits and possible drawbacks? How do you best handle them in estimating, planning and scheduling, and cost control?
Using the specific example of pipe racks, our speaker Raju Amin of Siemens Energy, Inc. will explain that during a power plant construction, the pipe rack is potentially on the critical path, and is one of the major activities driving the schedule, costing, and affecting the LD risk.
Mr. Amin’s presentation will help determine if a modularized pipe rack with a high degree of factory pre-fabrication and assembly would improve the cost and schedule. He will also provide a decision/evaluation basis to determine pipe rack procurement as a pre-fabricated module or stick-built in-site construction (conventional).
Don’t miss this chance to learn the pros and cons of one of building construction’s biggest trends, from the cost engineering point of view.
Speaker: Raju Amin, B,S., is a Project Engineer in Turnkey/Cost Estimating for Siemens Energy, Inc., and has been with the company for the past thirty years. With over three decades in the power generation business with Westinghouse and later Siemens, Raju's career has evolved from site construction technician on nuclear projects in Illinois and Indiana to site piping engineer in Georgia; from Long View site residence engineer to project development engineer. His work has taken him across the United States as well as worldwide locations such as Germany, Mexico and India. In his current position Raju is responsible for the development of project cost estimates for EPC projects in North and South America.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $5.00 each with advance reservations. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org. |
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Assessing and Avoiding Project Delays: A Prospective Approach with speaker Brian J. Furniss, EI, PSP, Trauner Consulting Services
Avoiding project delays is paramount to accomplishing an “on time, on budget” project. Critical Path Method (CPM) scheduling has allowed project managers to determine the most important activities to avoid delays to the project completion date, i.e., delays to the critical path of the project. Since the advent of CPM scheduling, project schedulers have used Total Float to determine:
1) If an activity is on the critical path of the Project, and; 2) If not, the amount of time an activity can be delayed before it delays the project completion date.
As a result, Total Float was, and often still is, regarded as a tool that allows project managers to accurately determine how delays to activities will or will not delay their project. The problem is that the software used to schedule projects allow schedulers to use other tools that may alter the calculation of Total Float, and, thus, if Total Float can be used as a tool to avoid project delays.
This presentation will explain the mathematics behind Total Float and how scheduling techniques alter Total Float and its use as a project management tool. This presentation will also demonstrate a technique that can be used to assess which activities must be progressed, in order to avoid project delays, when the scheduling practices used change the practical use of Total Float.
Speaker: Brian J. Furniss, EI, PSP
Brian is a Director with Trauner Consulting Services and is currently based out of Orlando, Florida. Brian is an expert in claims analysis, CPM scheduling and delay analysis, and training. He is a co-author of the book, Construction Delays: Understanding Them Clearly, Analyzing Them Correctly, writes articles for industry publications, and speaks nationally.
Having analyzed construction claims for more than a decade, Brian has directed and performed all types of analyses during the project to help the project team resolve disagreements and avoid disputes; and after the project has completed to help the parties resolve their differences without resorting to costly litigation. Brian has analyzed airport, bridge, commercial, entertainment, healthcare, high-rise, highway, government, laboratory, residential, prison, sports arena, theme park, and transit projects.
Brian is a certified and award-winning instructor presenting training seminars and Webinars for the National Highway Institute, the Construction Management Association of America, the Associated General Contractors of America, and other industry groups.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at additional cost with advance reservations. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org. |
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Cost Control in Emergency Recovery Operations with speaker Prof. Ralph V. Locurcio, PE, Director, Construction Management Program, Florida Institute of Technology
Emergency recovery operations are a special form of construction performed under conditions of extreme urgency. For this reason there is generally little time for normal measures of cost estimation and control, which are often bypassed in such situations. Ultimately, however, these operations become the subject of extreme public scrutiny where cost control often becomes one of the measures of success or failure.
This talk will discuss a method of cost management that was utilized in the reconstruction of the country of Kuwait following the 1991 Gulf War in which US forces liberated Kuwait from Iraqi control. While initial estimates postulated a war lasting several months, in reality the war lasted only 4 days. As a consequence, reconstruction forces had to be mobilized to begin recovery operations on extremely short notice to restore critical infrastructure such as electrical generation and distribution systems, roads, hospitals, schools and government buildings. This presentation will discuss how the Kuwait Emergency Reconstruction Office (KERO) managed approximately $650 million in reconstruction funds during the 300 days following the war, with essentially total control and a successful post-construction audit.
This topic is especially relevant to construction and engineering firms worldwide since the earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan, and of course, for the ongoing recovery in New Orleans as well as catastrophic events elsewhere.
As a bonus, Professor Locurcio will end his presentation with a brief discussion of estimating methods taught at the Florida Institute of Technology.
Speaker:
Brig Gen (ret) Ralph V. Locurcio, P.E., F.SAME; Professor, Civil Engineering and Director, Construction Management Program, Florida Institute of Technology
Education:
B.S. Engineering, U.S. Military Academy, 1965; M.S./PhD(abd) Engineering, Purdue University, 1972 US Army War College, 1987; University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, Strategic Management, 1991; Harvard University, JFK National Security Program, 1994.
Experience:
Professor Locurcio retired as a Brigadier General from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and private industry. He has over 39 years of experience in the planning, engineering, design, and construction of military facilities and civil infrastructure. He has served as a Director of Public Works for a community of 21,000 persons and has worked on literally hundreds of facilities projects, as well as a wide variety of civil projects including power systems, substations, highways, major bridges, flood control, navigation, hydropower, recreation, water supply, environmental and emergency response to natural disasters. Most notable in his military career was his leadership of the Kuwait Emergency Reconstruction Office (KERO), where he formed and led a team of 125 engineering professionals in the $650 million reconstruction of civil infrastructure in war torn Kuwait following the 1991 Gulf War.
Professor Locurcio left the military in 1996 to accept a position as a Senior Vice President with private industry. As Director of Federal Programs for STV Incorporated, Professor Locurcio was responsible for improving project management, automation, quality and engineering operations throughout the firm’s eight offices and 1,300 personnel and as Project Director for all government projects. Most notable in this area was the design for a new 144,000 sf library for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point valued at approximately $60 million. In August 2004, General Locurcio accepted a faculty position as a Professor at Florida Institute of Technology where he is responsible for managing the undergraduate and graduate Construction Management Programs for the Department of Civil Engineering and for a new 4-year academic program leading to a BS Degree in Construction Management which he developed and launched in 2007.
Siemens Energy, Inc., Orlando, FL, 6:30 p.m. Optional dinners at $5.00 per person with advance reservations. Questions? E-mail meetings@nflaace.org. |
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© Copyright 2007-2011 North Florida Section of AACE® International, Inc. All rights reserved. |
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© 2011 AACE® International, Inc. and its official professional certifications are trademarks of the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering, Inc. All rights reserved. |
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This meeting will also feature our Special Holiday Celebration, including a gourmet meal, holiday decorations, music, door prizes and more! Our North Florida AACEi “You’re a Star” Award will be presented as well. Invite your spouse, friend or colleague. |
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Note: The May meeting concludes our 2010-2011 program year. After the summer break, be sure to join us again in September for a new series of quality educational presentations. Watch this page for upcoming programs for the fall and beyond, and visit our Web site often for the latest Section news and activities. We welcome your ideas and suggestions on possible topics and speakers. Please send them to programs@nflaace.org. Upcoming meetings:
9/15/2011: Technology in Construction: The Cost Engineer’s Technology Toolkit, with speaker James Benham, President, JBKnowledge Technologies, Inc.
10/20/2011: Accurately Pricing Projects in the Hyper-Competitive 2011 Market, with speaker Michael D. Dell'Isola, PE, CVS, FRICS, Faithful & Gould.
11/17/2011: Best Bidding Practices (Working title), with speaker Michael Doyle, Manager of Estimating Services, Camp Dresser McKee (CDM). |
