CMAdvisor
Advancing Professional Construction and Program Management Worldwide
September/October 2009
Volume XXVIII, No. 5
Where’s the Stimulus?
New SOP Reflects
New Realities
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro on
Infrastructure Investment
CMAA Announces
2010 Water Summit
Also in This Issue: Interactive Guide
to the 2009 CMAA Trade Show.
Contents
September/October 2009
Volume XXVIII, No. 5
6Where’s the Stimulus?
Funds provided by the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act of 2009 have begun
to flow. But are the right projects being
funded? Is ARRA making a difference?
Find out what CMs think.
8New SOP Reflects New Realities
CMAA has published the first new edition
of its Standards of Practice in six years.
Find out what’s new and different, and
how you can use the new SOP to improve
your business.
Features
10Industry Extends Embrace of CCM
12 The Next Chapter in Infrastructure Investment
By the Hon. Rosa L. DeLauro
Columns
5Chairman’s Report
By Thomas W. Bishop, PE
27President’s Report
By Bruce D’Agostino, CAE, FCMAA
14CMs Missing Leadership Opportunity in
Departments
16 News
Sustainable Design and Construction?
By the CMAA Sustainability Committee
20Professional Practice Corner
Also in This Issue: Interactive Guide
to the 2009 CMAA Trade Show.
22 Legal Corner
23 Foundation
24 Member News
26 Chapter News
Cover photo of Woodrow Wilson Bridge by EyeConstruction, Inc.,
courtesy of Potomac Crossing Consultants.
26Professional Development Calendar
September/October
3
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CMAdvisor
Chairman’s Report
Chairman of the Board
Thomas W. Bishop, PE
URS Corporation
New Realities = New Standards of Practice
President and Chief Executive Officer
Bruce D’Agostino, CAE, FCMAA
By Thomas W. Bishop, PE
URS Corporation
Editor
John McKeon
Nearly two years’ effort will come to fruition this month
with the publication of a new edition of CMAA Construction
Management Standards of Practice (SOP). This is the first
update of our SOP since 2003. The document will be available
for purchase at the National Conference & Trade Show in
Orlando, and I urge every member, whether attending the
Conference or not, to become closely familiar with its contents.
Contributing Writers
Sarah Black
Martha Montague
Design
TGD Communications
OUR SERVICES
Program Management
Construc on Management
Construc bility Review
Construc on Inspec on
Cost Es ma ng
CPM Scheduling
1989
Contract Administra on
Dispute Resolu on
Project Closeout
Commissioning
Risk Management
FHA/ADA Inspec on
Training
2009
Named a Best Small Company
to Work for in America 2008
WWW. MB PC E .C OM
Dennis D. Dunne, FCMAA, Chief Facilities
Consultant, California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation
Strategic Program Management,
by Bob Prieto, senior VP of Fluor
“The seminal work on this subject.”
F. H. Griffis, PhD, Dean of Engineering,
New York Polytechnic University
“Excellent reading for all members
of the management team.”
James L. Lammie, Chairman,
Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc.
“In short, a great work.”
Henry M. Harris, Jr., CMC, President &
Managing Director, FMI Inc.
Two standard-setting explorations of a trend that’s changing the
face of construction – read them together for a comprehensive
look at Program Management! Order from the CMAA online bookstore, http://cmaanet.org/cmaa-bookstore.
4
CMAdvisor
Three entirely new sections have been added to the SOP, addressing Risk Manage‑
ment, Sustainability and BIM. In addition, the section on Program Management has
been significantly expanded and now contains much more detailed descriptions
of exactly how the professional CM/PM functions most effectively in a program
environment.
This is a substantially new document, not just a new coat of paint on a familiar
structure. It reflects the new realities of our industry and the continuing evolution
of owner needs.
I want to congratulate our incoming chair, Gary Cardamone of the Port of Long Beach,
on this remarkable achievement. Over the past two years, scores of CMAA members
volunteered their time and expertise for this effort. Ten working groups were formed,
and their drafts went through numerous, meticulous reviews.
It is a tribute to CMAA that our association can command such dedication and
involvement. Our new SOP book demonstrates what great things can be accom‑
plished by active volunteers. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who took part!
Program Management is changing how construction is delivered. CMAA leads the way in seizing the advantages
of this fundamentally new strategy, with two vital books on PM by nationally respected experts:
“It will become an instant classic and
a must read…”
Our Mission is to Promote and
Enhance Leadership, Professionalism
and Excellence in Managing the
Development and Construction
of Projects and Programs.
CM Advisor, published bi­‑monthly
by CMAA, reports on and follows
the industry as a service to its
members. Submission of articles,
ideas and suggestions is appreciated
and encouraged.
CMAA Delivers – The Future of Program Management
Program Management: Concepts
and Strategies for Managing
Capital Building Programs,
by Chuck Thomsen, FAIA, FCMAA
CMAA is a construction industry
association of 5,500 firms and
professionals who provide management
services to owners who are planning,
designing and constructing capital
facilities and infrastructure projects.
The SOP is the key tool by which we define the content of our professional practice.
It is a distillation of best practices developed by thousands of CMs and PMs over
many years, and as such it provides a reliable pathway for owners to follow to realize
maximum value from their CM/PM services.
7926 Jones Branch Drive, Suite 800
McLean, Virginia 22102-3303 USA
Phone: 703.356.2622
Fax: 703.356.6388
Email: info@cmaanet.org
Web: www.cmaanet.org
CMAA ©Copyright 2009,
ISSN 1084-75327
Reproduction or redistribution in any
form is forbidden without written
permission of the publisher.
CMAA members receive this newsletter
as a member benefit. For advertising
information, contact Tom Egly at
tom.egly@tgdcom.com.
Construction Management Association of America
But this kind of multi-faceted endeavor also presents an enormous leadership chal‑
lenge. Keeping this effort on track, and driving it to such a successful outcome, must
chiefly be credited to Gary. In addition, the CMAA staff contributed significantly to
the editorial and publication dimensions of the project and special thanks go to John
McKeon, Vice President of CMAA for his commitment and leadership in this area.
The new SOPs not only provide us with a new foundation for our professional
services, they also create an important and valuable marketing tool. Our SOP can
be used whenever we face the question: Just what does the CM bring to the table?
In particular, the SOP can provide owners with a detailed presentation of exactly
what services they can expect from a CM/PM, and at what level of excellence.
The SOP describes what we do, how we do it, how we interact with other professions
in the construction industry, and how projects and owners benefit.
I urge every CMAA member to obtain a copy of Construction Management Standards
of Practice from the CMAA bookstore. Use it as a guide in delivering your services, and
as a tool in marketing yourself and your firms to clients. Most of all, commit yourself
anew to achieving and maintaining the excellence portrayed in the SOP.
This commitment to excellence guided the development of this document and is a
strong basis for our success in the years ahead.
September/October
5
“The question is how to sustain transportation investments to
create jobs and rebuild a system that hasn’t seen real national
focus since the highway system was launched in 1956.”
opportunity to hire new talent, particu‑
larly former construction contractor
work force or cross training Construction
Managers from a different construction
industry (i.e. buildings to roads and bridges)
that add valuable experience to our CM teams.”
Where’s the Stimulus?
Industry, Politicos Differ on Value of ARRA Funding
By John J. McKeon
“The stimulus package is just leaving the big projects
behind,” says John Mica, (R-FL), the ranking minority
member on the House of Representatives Committee on
Transportation and Infrastructure, referring to the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed last February.
Similarly, Engineering News-Record has editorialized that
“instead of tossing incoherent projects into the feeding
frenzy, the nation and the industry would be much better
off focusing on, and embracing, long term stable funding.”
Is ARRA putting too much money toward short-term,
cosmetic work like pavement repairs while ignoring
major infrastructure needs? From the professional
CM perspective, the jury is still out.
However, the highway department has been implementing
many roadway projects that were on hold due to lack
of funding and now are funded by stimulus funds.”
Overall, Sleiman says, “the effect is positive. Some of the
projects completed this year would have not been done until
next year without the stimulus funds. The only impact is the
added work load on the existing staff as we have a freeze on
hiring due to the economy and we are down seven positions.”
Milo E. Riverso, PhD, PE, President of STV, Inc. believes that
“our industry is certainly benefiting. Projects are moving
ahead that may otherwise have been cut due to the
reduction in tax revenues.”
CMAA members interviewed recently reported diverse
experiences with ARRA, with some noting “no impact”
while others identified significant opportunities being
created by the stimulus effort.
STV, Riverso reports, had projects already underway that
have received additional funding through ARRA, including
work on the NY MTA/Long Island Railroad East Wide Access
project, the Tans-Hudson Express tunnel, and an extensive
modernization of New York City Housing Authority projects.
“Most of the projects funded are already in our capital
program and are scheduled for this and next year,” says
Sam Sleiman, PE, CCM, Director of Capital Programs and
Environmental Affairs at Massachusetts Port AuthorityLogan International Airport. “I do not think these funds
added major work that made a difference to the region.
Thomas Zagorski, PE, Vice President of Michael Baker, Jr., Inc.,
says his firm is working on 16 stimulus-funded projects so
far, including a $25 million Amtrak station rehab project
in Wilmington, DE. “The stimulus has had a positive effect
on our business,” he says. “It has allowed us to provide
career advancement for our existing staff and offered an
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CMAdvisor
In contrast, Darrell Fernandez, Senior Operations
Manager for Parsons, has observed “a modest effect
at the moment. The government is just beginning to
gain momentum to move from the planning phase to the
implementation phase.” And Skip Berry, President, Louisville
Division and Marketing at Wehr Constructors, reports that
although “there has been much consideration and follow-up,
we have not received any stimulus funded work.”
Moving “shovel-ready” projects into construction has also
helped free up the total job pipeline, says Steven Routon,
PE, Senior VP and Chairman, Construction at HNTB Corpora‑
tion. “With ARRA getting shovel-ready projects complete,
we’re seeing design efforts quickly move up the pipeline, and
we are helping to ready those projects for implementation
before ARRA timelines expire.”
Zagorski agrees: “Stimulus funding became available for
the “shovel ready” projects, thus freeing up previously
programmed funds for other more critical projects. So, in
retrospect, the right projects have been funded,” he says.
To Christine Keville, FCMAA, President of Keville Enterprises,
ARRA’s short-term focus is in itself a plus for CM providers.
Keville’s firm is doing Program Management on ARRA
projects for the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail agency.
“Since construction of many ARRA-funded projects will be
less than a year in duration, coverage of the work by CM
consulting firms can be an effective solution for DOTs,
rather than hiring temporary help and then laying them
off when the work is complete.”
Instead of boom-then-bust hiring, Keville suggests, “the
expanded construction activities associated with the
stimulus program are a good opportunity for state and
local governments to use IDIQ contracts.”
The stress on speed for ARRA projects raises some other issues.
“Fast tracking design and construction always leads to prob‑
lems unless you have a CM/PM that can monitor the progress
with an eye toward quality control and safety,” says Sleiman.
ARRA’s extensive record-keeping and reporting requirements
present another opportunity. “Many DOTs and other public
owners can be overwhelmed with the transparency and
certification requirements to select and let jobs,” says
Riverso. “CMs can help them to perform these functions,
prioritize projects, and plan and implement ARRA funding
in a strategic way.”
The increased requirements “have led several state and
local authorities to look at revamping their Program
Management structures,” says Routon. “Consequently, we
are seeing increased requests for PM systems studies, as
well as more traditional project controls services, budget
forecasting, estimating, scheduling and risk assessment.”
One key to the CM’s role in stimulus implementation may
be keeping clients aware of how ARRA may evolve in the
future. Fernandez observes that this job “would include
keeping clients abreast as new developments unfold from
follow-on legislation and funding mechanisms. Also,
CMs/PMs can work toward positioning DOTs to take full
advantage of funding and tax credits.”
In the long run, the most important thing about ARRA
may be that the stimulus is just the beginning. Certainly,
ARRA provides only a “down payment” on long-overdue
infrastructure improvements.
“The projected transportation and infrastructure project
needs require much more funding than what is available
nationwide,” says Keville. “These federal stimulus funds will
definitely help…but it is important that we carefully, logically
and methodically prioritize our projects so that we get the
biggest bang for our bucks.”
Says Routon: “The question is how to sustain transportation
investments to create jobs and rebuild a system that hasn’t
seen real national focus since the highway system was
launched in 1956.”
“The U.S. transportation system is literally crumbling under
the strain of overuse and old age, so you could argue that
any improvement project is a good one,” Routon adds. “But
while ARRA is a strong step forward, we must have a more
comprehensive, sustainable plan for the future.”
John J. McKeon is vice president of CMAA. He can be reached
at jmckeon@cmaanet.org.
September/October
7
New SOP Reflects
New Realities
“As an owner practitioner myself, I would expect every
CM pursuing work with my agency to be well versed in
all areas of the Standards of Practice.”
Toward the conclusion of the process, the
CMAA College of Fellows was recruited
to review the documents and offer
comments based on their extensive
expertise. Finally, the finished document
“The SOP describes what we do, how we do it, how we
interact with other professions in the construction industry,
and how projects and owners benefit.”
For the first time in six years, CMAA has
revised and expanded its Construction
Management Standards of Practice,
producing a document that is “not
just a new coat of paint on a familiar
structure,” according to CMAA Chair
Tom Bishop.
Instead, the new SOP responds con‑
cretely to major recent marketplace
and technology changes.
The new edition results from a twoyear effort that involved more than 60
professional Construction and Program
Managers collaborating in ten topical
working groups. The entire effort was
chaired by Gary Cardamone, PE, Director
of Construction Management for the
Port of Long Beach, CA.
8
CMAdvisor
CMAA’s SOP is “intended to establish
industry standards of service and to
serve as a guide to the range of services
that constitute professional Construction
Management,” says the book’s preface.
The new document differs from the
2003 edition in several key ways:
• Three entirely new sections have
been added, describing best practices
in Risk Management, Sustainability
and implementation of Building
Information Modeling.
• The section on Program Management
has been significantly expanded to
reflect the growing interest in this
highly productive strategy among
sophisticated owners with ongoing
building programs.
CMAA Chair Tom Bishop of URS
Corporation said of the new SOP:
“This is a substantially new document,
not just a new coat of paint on a
familiar structure. It reflects the
new realities of our industry and the
continuing evolution of owner needs.”
Bishop also noted that in addition to
defining what can be expected of a
professional CM/PM, the SOP serves
a valuable marketing purpose by
describing exactly what the CM/PM
“brings to the table.
Construction Management Standards of Practice
The SOP collaborators worked through‑
out 2008 to identify areas in which
the old document required updating,
as well as vital topics not previously
addressed. The group established an
online wiki site to maintain version
control and provide a convenient
means of commenting and editing
the evolving drafts.
underwent a final edit and “polish.”
CMAA staff also conducted a side-by-side
comparison of the old and new SOPs to
help alert such key players as the CMAA
Professional Development department
and the Construction Manager Certifi‑
cation Institute (CMCI) of SOP changes
impacting their activities.
2010 Edition
The process leading to the new edition
of the SOP began in 2007 with the
formation of a committee to plan
and manage the job. A call for
volunteers produced more than 60
active participants, who were then
organized into working groups.
“The SOP describes what we do, how
we do it, how we interact with other
professions in the construction industry,
and how projects and owners benefit,”
Bishop said. “Major owners frequently
make specific reference to CMAA’s
Standards of Practice in their RFPs to
assure themselves of these benefits.”
Construction Management
Standards of Practice
2010 Edition
Advancing Professional Construction/
Program Management Worldwide.
7926 Jones Branch Drive, Suite 800
McLean, VA 22102-3303 USA
703.356.2622 | 703.356.6388 fax
www.cmaanet.org
Advancing Professional Construction/
Program Management Worldwide.
The new SOP is available
in the CMAA bookstore.
• An emphasis on sustainability
and risk management has been
woven throughout all 11 sections
of the document.
“We now have a set of standards that
are much more comprehensive in
addressing all the areas of expertise
relevant to our industry and our prac‑
titioners,” said Cardamone. “Beyond
setting standards of practice for all CM
practitioners, this new document pro‑
vides owners with guidelines for what
to expect from their service providers.
It raises the bar for service providers in
the construction industry. It can also be
used by CM firms as well as individual
practitioners as an indicator of where
they need to focus their professional
development resources.”
Cardamone added, “As an owner
practitioner myself, I would expect
every CM pursuing work with my
agency to be well versed in all areas
of the Standards of Practice.”
September/October
9
“I guarantee that if you go through the
process and obtain your CCM, you will
learn something of value about the
industry and about yourself.”
Industry Extends Embrace of CCM®
Construction and Program Management companies looking
for a shot at the General Services Administration’s new
multi-year IDIQ contracts for CM/PM services recently got
a plain and simple message from GSA: If you want part of
this business, you’d better have Certified Construction
Managers in your proposal.
GSA recently published notice of intent to issue an RFP seeking
consultants for up to ten nationwide Indefinite Delivery Indefi‑
nite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts supporting projects in all eleven
GSA regions as well as the GSA Central Office. Each contract
will consist of a base year and four additional one-year options
to be issued at the discretion of the GSA contracting officer.
“It does mean something to clients, to
associates and importantly, to yourself.”
The solicitation includes this statement:
“A more favorable evaluation will be given to contractors
demonstrating that their key personnel have been certified
as Construction Managers through the Construction Man‑
agement Certification Institute sponsored by the CMAA.”
Similarly, the Federal Acquisition Service has also published
a Request for Quote on behalf of the Public Building Service,
seeking to procure a full range of CM/PM services to support
capital and non-capital construction and renovation pro‑
grams. This RFQ includes a statement that “it is desired
that CM/PM firms provide staff certified as Construction
Managers by the Construction Manager Certification
Institute sponsored by the CMAA.”
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CMAdvisor
CCM vs. PMP?
In both solicitations, GSA also sought to clarify a long-standing
industry question concerning the equivalence or comparability
of Certified Construction Manager (CCM) designation with
other credentials. The IDIQ solicitation states that for bidders
not offering CCM personnel, an acceptable alternative is “key
personnel who have been certified through the Project Man‑
agement Institute (PMI) as Project Management Professionals
(PMP) with 10 years Construction Management experience on
construction projects valued $10,000,000 or greater.”
The FAS solicitation also addressed this question, providing
for the alternative of PMP certification “with a minimum 10
years Construction Management experience on construction
projects valued $10 million or greater…These represent the
Government’s desired qualifications. Contractors proposing
lesser qualified individuals may be rated lower during the
source selection process.”
Bruce D’Agostino, president and CEO of CMAA, described
these GSA provisions as “a resounding endorsement of
CCM as the pre-eminent professional credential in the
Construction and Program Management industry. GSA
has zeroed in on precisely the factor that sets CCM apart,
its emphasis on responsible-in-charge experience as the
indispensable qualification for certification.”
D’Agostino also noted the strong endorsement of CCM by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and commented, “Being a CCM
is quickly becoming an absolute requirement for anyone who
wants to do business with the federal government.”
A Culture of Certification
Across the country, a growing number of CM services firms
are adopting a “culture of certification” – an organizationwide commitment that everyone who practices CM will be
certified and that the organization will encourage, support
and reward those who pursue and achieve the credential.
“The push for certification is on throughout our firm because
we realize the value of the profession and it is becoming
more and more recognized as a legitimate set of skills for
success in the business,” said Raymond Richards, CCM of
Heery International. “Certification represents knowledge
and it indicates that you strive for excellence in your
profession. In your career, having this certification may
give you an advantage over others who do not hold this
credential; it may give you a bargaining edge when you
negotiate your salary and it is great for your confidence.”
Jim Ruddell, PE, CCM, of Parsons Brinckerhoff manages the
huge Woodrow Wilson Bridge replacement project near
Washington, DC. He recalls, “Nearly 30 years ago, I studied
tenaciously and passed the PE exam. It was hard, it was
meaningful and it was worth it. The PE license opened doors
that were closed to those without it. As CMAA brought ANSI
certification and broad industry acceptance to the CCM
credential, CCMs began to enjoy many of the same benefits
of a PE license. As an added benefit, I guarantee that if you
go through the process and obtain your CCM, you will learn
something of value about the industry and about yourself.”
For Sanford C. Loy CCM, President/CEO of Construction
Plus, Inc., the CCM “is an essential credential because it
provides an owner with confidence that the professional
they are entrusting is a reliable and standardized resource.
It is another tool in the owner’s arsenal to assure them
that they have selected the most qualified and the most
professional people available in the industry today.”
At Carollo Engineers, A. Eric Gilmore, CCM, comments: “I am
managing a large, challenging project through the company I
currently work for and I believe we were awarded this project,
in part, due to my CMCI Certification. I believe that not only
have I benefited by becoming a CCM, but the two companies
I have worked for since my certification have also benefited.”
“Being a CCM is quickly becoming
an absolute requirement for anyone
who wants to do business with the
federal government.”
Danny Kaye, a principal of Totum Consulting, lists an
impressive array of initials after his name, including PMP
and LEED AP. He particularly values the CCM. “I believe it is
extremely important to get the appropriate credentials in your
field of work,” Kaye said. “It does mean something to clients,
to associates and importantly, to yourself. It lets you know you
have made the best effort you can to be on top of your game.”
Another CCM, Richard Moewe, offered this perspective:
“In my own world of large public projects this CCM has a
double advantage. Lately, in New York where I work, the
public agencies have largely substituted a CCM for a PE.
With this distinction we Construction Managers have a great
advantage to earn the work we are most qualified to do.”
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR LATEST CCMS
September/October
11
These New Deal infrastructure investments did
more than just put millions of people to work and
help to stem the immediate economic suffering
all around. They generated infrastructure capital
that proved invaluable to the revitalization,
growth, and continued prosperity of our nation.
But today, in the midst of our worst economic
downturn since the Depression, our infrastruc‑
ture is crumbling. According to the American
Society of Civil Engineers, which recently gave
our national infrastructure a grade of D, we
need to invest $2.2 trillion in the next five
years just to meet adequate conditions.
Concurrently, we have recently seen the unem‑
ployment rate in construction leap to as high as
21%. The Recovery Act we passed in January is
helping some, but we still need to consider the
long-term health of both our infrastructure and
the construction industry. For every $1 billion
spent on transportation projects, 47,500 jobs
that cannot be outsourced are created and
$6.2 billion in economic activity is generated.
The Next Chapter in
Infrastructure Investment
By the Hon. Rosa L. DeLauro, U.S. House of Representatives
Over the course of our history, bold infrastructure policy has
often played a key role in alleviating economic distress. For
example, when the Great Depression put one-fourth of the
nation out of work, President Franklin Roosevelt answered
the challenge with then-unprecedented infrastructure
investments. Roads, bridges, highways, tunnels, parks, and
public buildings were constructed across America through
the Works Progress Administration. The Tennessee Valley
Authority built hydroelectric dams. The Rural Electrification
Administration wired rural areas for electricity.
12
CMAdvisor
That is one of the many reasons why I, along
with Representatives Keith Ellison, Steve Israel
and Anthony Weiner, introduced the National
Infrastructure Development Bank Act. The bill
establishes a development bank for America –
a new independent entity that can objectively
consider public works projects and provide
financing for them, including through billions of
dollars leveraged from the global capital market
from central banks, pension funds, financial
institutions, sovereign wealth funds and the like.
This development bank would issue 30-plus
year “public benefit” bonds and provide direct
subsidies to infrastructure projects from
amounts made available from the issuance
of these bonds. Funding from the bank would
supplement, not supplant, current financing
mechanisms. And, capitalized with $250 billion –
$25 billion through Congressional appropriations
and the rest subject to the call of the Treasury
Secretary – as well as a conservative leverage
ratio of 2.5:1, the Bank could issue up to $625
billion in bonds, providing for an unprecedented
level of infrastructure investment.
Ultimately, the forming of a national infra‑
structure bank would depoliticize infrastructure
investment and create new opportunities to
fund projects of regional or national significance
with clear economic, environmental and social
benefits. This plan is modeled after the European
Investment Bank, which for fifty years has raised
private sector capital for investment in trans‑
portation, energy and telecommunications.
It is working wonders for Europe, including
an ambitious Trans-European Network now
integrating the continent with high-speed rail.
And it could work wonders for us.
I am pleased that the bank has earned the
endorsement and support of CMAA, because
professional Construction and Program Man‑
agers will play a major role in rebuilding our
infrastructure. The bank also enjoys the support
of many in the business, labor and construction
communities, as well as the National Governor’s
Association, President Obama, and many in
Congress. In fact, it has already been budgeted in
both the President’s budget ($5 billion annually
for five years) and the House budget ($2 billion in
fiscal year 2009 and $5 billion in fiscal year 2010).
“A national infrastructure bank would depoliticize
infrastructure investment and create new
opportunities to fund projects of regional or
national significance.”
As we combat this recession, we in Congress
are also looking for ways to ensure the longterm growth and prosperity of our economy.
Soon we will turn to surface transportation
and the health of our national infrastructure –
the development bank should and will be a
key part of that effort.
In terms of both alleviating our current
recession and planning for long-term prosperity,
infrastructure reinvestment under the purview
of a development bank is absolutely the right
thing to do. America’s economic vitality, especially
during hard times, has always rested on the
foundation of her infrastructure. The chapters
of our American success story have always been
written in stone and mortar, iron and steel,
granite and fiber-optic cable. It is time now for
us to write in bold strokes the next chapter in
infrastructure investment for our nation – a new
national infrastructure development bank.
Rosa L. DeLauro (D) represents the Third
District of Connecticut in the U.S. House
of Representatives. She sits on the House
Appropriations and Budget Committees.
September/October
13
CMs Missing Opportunity to Lead in
Sustainable Design and Construction?
By the CMAA Sustainability Committee
While the LEED® Green Building Rating System
has led the way for sustainable buildings and
sites, all projects will soon have sustainable
aspects; whether it is through the International
Green Construction Code currently being
developed by the ICC, or by requirements
stipulated by jurisdictions in order to secure
permits. Yet, based on an informal review of
credentials posted by CMAA members, only
approximately two percent of our Certified CMs
are also LEED Accredited Professionals under
the U.S. Green Building Council’s program.
The CMAA Sustainability Committee has
observed that our professional peers have been
slow, if not reluctant, to grasp the knowledge
and skill sets needed to sustain their role as the
program and project leader when it comes to
sustainable design and construction. Often they
turn to LEED consultants to supplement their
knowledge, or abstain from any real contribution
in this area by placing the sustainable portion
of the program completely in the hands of the
design team. Either option means limiting the
CM’s positive impact on the project and depriving
the owner and the project team of valuable input.
Today’s owner is looking for a central manager
of all aspects of their project. Without sufficient
knowledge to manage a sustainable design
and construction project, CMs are depriving
themselves of an opportunity to offer
comprehensive services with corresponding
compensation, and they may be undermining
the broad degree of expertise and competency
expected from the program and project leaders
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CMAdvisor
with the CCM designation. Failing to become
fully conversant in the area of sustainability
is no more acceptable to an owner than the
CM failing to understand value engineering,
scheduling or cost estimating.
Certainly, CMs can successfully oversee and
manage areas of a project where we have limited
knowledge and only tangential experience. But
at the same time, all CMs typically have a depth
of working knowledge in the underlying prin‑
ciples of nearly every aspect of the design and
construction process. With such knowledge, we
are equipped to address complex disciplines like
structural and HVAC design, despite their highly
technical nature. As CMs, have we demonstrated
that same level of commitment and effort to
equip ourselves to address sustainable principles?
Many CMs have successfully delivered sustain‑
able projects with a modicum of knowledge, and
this approach would be fine if sustainability were
a rare occurrence or encountered on a once-ina-career project. The fact is that more knowledge
and practical experience in this area would more
than likely have made a significant impact on
the project that was delivered. You could have
helped the owner make better choices by apply‑
ing typical CM skills such as cost benefit analysis
and life cycle costing to the LEED Check List quo‑
tient. And certainly having strong fundamentals
in sustainable design and construction could
ensure the right architect or engineer got the job
because you would have been able to distinguish
the difference between “green wash” and real
skill and expertise in sustainable design.
When we are CM as Agent, we are often charged with
charting the process and managing the program for the
owner. Fully understanding the integration of sustainable
design into construction is requisite if we are to set
objectives, schedules, and budgets for a program that
has sustainable aspects. We cannot successfully procure
design professionals, write scopes of work, and interpret
performances if we fail to have a working knowledge
that is bolstered by an investment in actual experience.
“Failing to become fully conversant in
the area of sustainability is no more
acceptable to an owner than the CM
failing to understand value engineering,
scheduling or cost estimating.”
When we are CM at Risk, more skill and knowledge about
the product type has proven to mitigate risk for you and
the owner; sustainability is no exception. It also means you
are bringing greater value to the table as the construction
partner to the owner, while at the same time making your
firm more competitive from a credentials standpoint, and
often from a pricing standpoint.
Practicing CMs and LEED Accredited Professionals have an
opportunity to be on the forefront of emerging trends and
technology. Despite the rapid growth and popularity of LEED
projects, the market has only scratched the surface when
it comes to creative thinking and meaningful solutions for
sustainable design and construction. Process management
expertise and organizational knowledge is in its infancy and
lacks the sophistication that CCMs apply to all other areas
of the Program and Project Management process. Largely,
the whole of the market is still “painting by numbers” when
it comes to sustainability, and few real artists have yet
established themselves either in architecture, engineering,
or Construction Management.
The CMAA Sustainability Committee encourages members
to secure the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience
in sustainable design and construction, and to become
practicing LEED Accredited Professionals so that the Certified
Construction Manager can remain the Project and Program
Leader as sustainability further proliferates in the industry.
* USGBC V 2.0 Reference Guides 2006
** McGraw-Hill Construction, SmartMarket Trends Report 2008
This article was prepared by the CMAA Sustainability
Committee and edited by Michael Catlett, CCM, LEED AP,
GRP, Principal, Advanced Project Management, Inc. He can
be reached at mcatlett@apm1.com.
Consider the fact that buildings in the United States
“consume roughly 30% of our total energy and 60% of
our electricity annually, while consuming five billion
gallons of potable water. We also generate more than
2.5 pounds of waste for each square foot of building we
deliver.”* And perhaps the most impressive statistic: “It is
projected that $60 billion will be spent on green buildings
by 2013,” up from “$12 Billion in 2008.”** These statistics
demand your attention, not as environmentalists, but as
constructors and managers of resources.
September/October
15
News
Pre-Conference Seminars Previewed
Signs Point to a Great National Conference!
CMAA’s 2009 National Conference & Trade Show are
approaching amid growing signs that it will be a highly
successful and memorable event.
“It’s clear that our industry is rapidly coming together to build
the 2009 National Conference & Trade Show into another
watershed event for CMAA,” said CEO Bruce D’Agostino.
Advance registration closes October 9 and the event opens
on Saturday, October 24 with two new pre-Conference
seminars addressing LEED and scheduling issues. The
Conference itself runs October 25–27, closing with the
annual Industry Recognition Banquet.
Among the appeals of the event is an education program that
gives striking prominence to leading construction owners.
Among the owners represented by speakers in Orlando will
be Hilton Hotels, Miami Dade Aviation, New York City MTA
Capital Construction, The Smithsonian Institution, the Los
Angeles Unified School District, the Methodist Hospital
System, the San Diego County Water Authority, and the
City of Merced, CA, and others.
Among the early harbingers of success:
• The Exhibit Hall has sold out once again, despite the
national economic slump of the past year. Enlarged by
some 10 percent following a sold-out 2008 edition, the
trade show will offer more exhibits than ever before.
Complete information and registration are available online.
• Advance registrations as of “press time” have been com‑
parable to those preceding the 2008 Conference in San
Francisco, which set CMAA’s all-time attendance record.
• Thanks to a record-shattering 141 entries in the Project
Achievement Awards program (up from 101 last year),
the judges opted to expand the number of awards and
recognize honorable mentions in several categories.
For Schools, Stimulus Funds May Be Just the Beginning
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contains no
funds specifically directed to school construction, despite the
lobbying of CMAA and others to have such money included.
However, the Act provides several important ways that states
and school districts could fund new projects, and some of
these mechanisms may outlive ARRA itself.
“As costs skyrocket, budgets get tighter, as well as an
increased level of public awareness and demand, it is clear
that local districts will move in the direct of sustainability,”
Edelstein says. Sustainable schools, he adds, “are healthier
and more educationally friendly learning environments,
and that’s the bottom line.”
Those are the observations of Fritz Edelstein, a principal in
the Public Private Action consulting group and the latest
subject of a CMAA Radio interview.
Construction Managers, both as professionals and as citizens,
should become involved in helping their communities identify
funding and use the money effectively, Edelstein argues.
ARRA provides up to $11 billion per year for two years in
authority for Qualified School Construction Bonds, along
with separate funding for Qualified Zone Academy Bonds.
“There are significant amounts of new funds now available
to be accessed,” he explains. “If these programs can show
great demand and they’ve only taken care of part of it, it
may force the continuation of some of these programs or
the creation of others. We’ve been fighting for a long time
to get this funding. Having this initial breakthrough does
not mean that groups will rest. We will continue to work
on Congress and the administration for additional dollars
in both the bonds area and the grants area. There is always
going to be more money available in bonds and tax credits
than in grants, that’s just the reality.”
Several currently pending proposals will further expand
funding for school construction and renovation, Edelstein
says, and there’s money to be found in specific programs in
several other Cabinet departments and agencies. Of particular
interest is the emphasis on sustainable and “green” schools.
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CMAdvisor
In an interview with CMAA’s VP of Professional Develop‑
ment, Dennis Doran, Rocco Vespe, PE, of Trauner Consulting
Services and Charlie Popeck, President & CEO of Green Ideas
Environmental Building Consultants gave a preview of their
respective seminars.
Vespe described the way new innovations in scheduling
analysis have evolved the role of the CM.
“New innovations in scheduling analysis and schedule
tracking allow the construction manager to actually track
progress and identify delays on almost a daily basis. Having
this powerful tool of understanding delays on a day to
day basis puts the construction manager in a position to
be able to proactively manage time related issues. We’re
going to show how being able to access this information
and understand delays on a daily basis can be a means for
resolving delay related issues and delay related damages
so that they don’t drag the project down, and ultimately
impact the chances of the success of a project,” said Vespe.
Popeck explained to Doran the relationship between
the green associate pre-conference seminar and the
USGBC’s LEED program.
• Sponsorship support of the Conference has also exceeded
the budget target by nearly 50 percent!
A third bonding option, Edelstein says, may have the greatest
potential. Build America Bonds “have no level of funding
or state allocation and can be used for any type of public
sector project including school construction. I believe this
is the best of all the options and it will be continued after
the stimulus package,” he explains.
CMAA’s two new pre-conference seminars to be held prior
to the National Conference & Trade Show in Orlando will
offer expert insights on two topics of critical importance
to CMs, scheduling and LEED.
LISTEN NOW to Fritz Edelstein in CMAA Radio Interview
“This course will teach the fundamentals of sustainability
and green building under which all the LEED rating systems
are built. Students in the course will learn to identify the key
components of the LEED program such as water management
energy impacts and acquisition, management of project
materials, construction waste management, so that they
can better understand the LEED certification process for
commercial and residential buildings. And by understanding
these core principles as well as the intent and associated
concepts to each LEED credit category, that will enable the
student to be successful in taking their Green Associates
Exam which is the first step towards becoming a LEED
accredited professional,” said Popeck.
“Having this powerful tool puts the construction
manager in a position to be able to proactively
manage time related issues.”
Attendees at this seminar will be ready to register for
the Green Associate exam upon completion of the course.
“There’s really no other place to get such personal access
to an expert in the industry,” said Popeck.
Learn more about these pre-conference seminars and register
by visiting www.cmaanet.org/national-conference-2009.
LISTEN NOW to Seminar Previews
Lesson from a $30 Billion Program: Discipline Is Key
“Budget, budget, budget,” is how Chris
Ward, Executive Director of the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey,
sums up what construction owners of all
sizes can learn from how the Authority
manages its immense portfolio.
The Port Authority operates Kennedy,
LaGuardia and Newark International
Airports, the Port of Newark, five bridges linking New York
and New Jersey, a major commuter railroad, and a variety of
other facilities in addition to managing the redevelopment of
the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. Its planned
capital investments through 2016 total nearly $30 billion.
“You can’t bring enough discipline to the front end of the
process, whether you are small, medium or large,” says Ward
during his recent interview in the CMAA Radio series. “You
need to really understand what your project is, how much
is it going to cost, and how you are going to get it built for
your budget. Never make the mistake that you think you can
make up costs later, or there is enough give in a budget that
you can cover expenses you didn’t think were going to occur.
You need a lot of discipline at the front end of a project.”
In particular, Ward notes that managing the redevelopment
of the “Ground Zero” site in lower Manhattan has challenged
the PA to innovate. That, in turn, has meant a major role for
Construction and Program Management.
“What we’re really looking for is schedule management, risk
management and proactive problem solving. The downtown
project is so complex, we’re building a train system, a train
station, we’re building the sacred heart of downtown, the
memorial, which will have the largest man made waterfall
anywhere in the country, we are building streets, we are
building three office towers, and all of those projects touch
another part of the project. It’s like the game of pick-up
sticks. If you touch one part, it affects another part.
“We really need that CM team to be looking down the road
at where there are going to be problems, where there are
conflicts, opportunities to make up schedules, to make budget
adjustments, to reduce costs. We need a very proactive team
on the ground looking at how this whole project gets built
in the fastest way possible,” Ward says.
LISTEN NOW to Chris Ward interview in CMAA Radio Series
September/October
17
News
Webinar Explores Water Efficiency
Second Water Summit Announced: Looks to Future of Critical Resource
CMAA’s first Best Practices Summit on Water and Wastewater
cast a bright spotlight on infrastructure issues that will only
grow more critical in the future as population expands and
water resources remain steady or even decline.
Spurred by the success of the event, held in Las Vegas in July,
CMAA has announced a new edition to be held in Kansas City,
MO on July 12–13, 2010.
Presentations at the Las Vegas summit emphasized that
water issues will have a profound impact on economic
growth and quality of life for many decades to come.
For example, Peter Binney, PE of Black & Veatch warned
that by 2050 the world’s population will reach 10 billion,
with 70 percent of those people living in urban areas. In the
United States, population will grow by 130 million in that
time. “Multiply that by 150 gallons of water per person per
day, plus 60 gallons of wastewater generated per person,
per day,” Binney said. The greatest resulting stress will fall
on states already impacted by water scarcity, including
California, Florida and Texas. “In California, urban water
use will increase by 67 percent by 2030,” Binney said.
“Water demand is growing faster than population.”
“If we’re spending too much money because we haven’t
properly identified or managed the risks, huge projects
may never get there,” Becker said.
In contrast, effective risk management allows project
managers to prioritize and rank risks, take a pro-active
approach to planning their responses, and improve
project-wide communications. Many state transportation
departments, in particular, are implementing formal risk
management programs that identify potential risks and
assess both their likelihood of occurrence and the probable
cost to the project should they occur.
All of these issues, clearly, are “here to stay,” and will
comprise a larger and larger portion of society’s required
infrastructure investments. CMAA’s second Water Summit
will help identify and promote the best strategies for
these investments.
In addition, more than a millennium of historical record sug‑
gests that the world today actually enjoys much more water
than has been available in the past. This history suggests
that “there will be lengthy and severe droughts in future.
“It’s the population growth that’s going to overwhelm and
cause the water bubble to burst, as opposed to climate
change,” he concluded.
In the face of severe water shortages, many communities are
also dealing with obsolete and deteriorating infrastructure
and need new approaches to modernization.
Ken Kirk, executive director of the National Association of
Clean Water Agencies, speaking at the Water Summit.
Catherine Gerali, district manager of the Metro Wastewater
Reclamation District in greater Denver, CO, told Water
Summit attendees that her district, in preparing for a
large capital investment over the next 20 years, has had
to undergo a “culture change” and learn quickly about
new ways of delivering projects.
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CMAdvisor
Regional considerations often drive the adoption of waterefficient practices. For example, the scarcity of water
experienced in the Southern and Western United States
has fueled a more rapid integration of these practices than
the Midwest, which currently faces less scarcity, and, in
turn, lower prices for water.
“Even though there is hesitation to do something new with
construction and building design, there is a recognition of
the benefits that come from the green building element that
transcends the fear of the additional first costs,” said Michele
A. Russo, LEED AP, Director, Green Content & Research Com‑
munications at MHC. Russo presented the findings of MHC’s
new Smart Market Report on Water Use in Buildings during a
recent CMs TalkLive! webinar presented by CMAA.
Data collected in the study showed virtually no industrywide effect of the down economy on the adoption of water
efficiency practices, pointing again to the widely accepted
critical nature of these innovations.
Due to global population growth, natural disasters, and the
rise in global temperatures, the implementation of water
efficient practices is becoming increasingly critical as water
supplies begin to diminish in many regions. MHC’s Smart
Market Report predicts that water efficient practices are likely
to become adopted increasingly over the next five years.
• Operating costs reduction
The built environment consumes 12 percent of the water in
the US, and 20 percent of the water in the world. This large
chunk of water use, and additional factors contributing to
water scarcity have provided an environment for the green
building market to grow and prosper. Water use efficiency
is an important part of energy efficiency.
As the industry accepts the strong correlation between saving
water and saving energy, the sense of immediacy drives
industry players to implement more water-efficient practices.
2010 CM Seoul Forum &
Global CM Contest
CMAA Supports Navy Seabee Museum
The 2010 CM Seoul Forum & Global CM Contest will
be held in Seoul, Korea on April 28–30, 2010. The event,
organized by CMAA, the Construction Management
Association of Korea, the Chartered Institute of Building,
and the Construction Management Association of Japan,
will consist of a CM Forum, case study presentations,
and a prize ceremony.
Registration for conference opens November 1.
Conference organizers are also seeking submissions
for the awards program. For full details, visit
http://www.cmak.or.kr/eng/html/greeting.asp.
“If ever we needed Program Management and cost control,
we need it now,” Gerali said. “We are looking at spending
$2 billion in the next 20 years, and for us that is huge. We
do not have the expertise on board to be able to deal with
the many issues we are going to be facing.”
Among these issues is effective risk management, which
often requires that owners, consultants and contractors
adopt a new mindset. Dan Becker of HDR, Inc. prefaced a
detailed discussion of risk evaluation and management
techniques by noting that proper risk management may
actually be the key to having major projects move forward
rather than facing delays or cancellation.
Despite the notion that owners tend to be more
conservative than their industry counterparts when
it comes to innovations that have up-front costs, a new
study by McGraw-Hill Construction has found that owners
are pushing water-efficient practices and methods more
aggressively than AE firms and contractors.
To learn more about this and other international
events of interest to CMs, visit http://cmaanet.org/
cmaa-international-home.
Business benefits serve as vital motivating factors for all
involved in water-efficient practices. Major motivators include:
• Energy use reduction
• Water use reduction
• Valuing the environment
• Gaining LEED credits
Learn more about CMAA’s CM TalkLive webinars at
www.cmaanet.org/courses-and-events. Ideas for
sessions can be submitted to Warren Corson at
wcorson@cmaanet.org.
When you already have a cool mascot and
a seven decade record of service, what
more do you need?
Well, money – that is, if you’re the U.S.
Navy Civil Engineer Corps (CEC) Seabee
Historical Foundation and you’re working
to launch a new museum to showcase the
Seabees’ history of high performance in both peace and war.
The Seabees’ mascot, a determined bee clutching both a
machine gun and an assortment of wrenches and hammers,
will soon stand guard over a new 30,000 square foot Navy
Seabee Museum in Port Hueneme, CA. The museum project
needs sponsors and donors, and CMAA encourages members
to support this worthwhile endeavor.
Additional information about the museum can be found
online at www.seabeehf.org.
Christopher Westhoff of the Los Angeles City Bureau of
Engineering speaking at the Water Summit.
September/October
19
Professional Practice Corner
Addressing the Emerging Service Deficit
In the Water and Wastewater Industry
By Peter Binney, PE, Black & Veatch
For many decades, the water and wastewater industry has
largely fulfilled its primary missions of providing safe and
reliable water supplies and sanitation of municipal and
industrial wastes with increasing benefits to the environment.
But some significant issues have subliminally developed in the
industry and these internal and external forces will require
significant changes in management and financing approaches
if this level of service is to be maintained.
The past performance of the water and wastewater industry
has been achieved with substantial investment from the
federal government. Past performance has also been subsi‑
dized by wetter hydrologic cycles, adequate reserve capacity
in existing infrastructure, incremental expansions of service
and deferrals of asset management programs or long term
capital facilities. With increasing frequency, the capacity of
the existing infrastructure is being exceeded by higher levels
of demand, aging and increasingly vulnerable infrastructure,
lower sources of supply because of drought or competition,
more restrictive discharge and compliance conditions or
institutional constraints such as those occurring in the
Sacramento Delta or the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Beyond federal funding programs, the majority of revenues
have been derived through local user fees that have been
maintained at relatively benign levels as incremental solutions
are delivered or those federal funds have been leveraged. The
adequacy of these funding sources resulted in some of the
highest levels of public health protection and environmental
benefits of any water and wastewater system, but that system
will require increased spending and major improvements in
its management practices if it is to continue providing those
benefits. Past practices have resulted in artificially lower costs
of service where the value provided is substantially larger
than the price paid by customers. This under-pricing of water
and wastewater services has been an artificial elixir to local
service providers who may be called on to balance utility
services and investments with the more visible public safety
and transportation needs of a community.
Water and wastewater systems are managed and operated
within a complex and often internally conflicted natural
resource policy framework that is subject to a wide array
of laws, regulations, special interest advocacy and abstract
decision processes. Our policies and utility management
systems are increasingly challenged to effectively respond
to the intricacies of these natural resource issues. It is
therefore likely that significant reforms will be required in
policies, utility management procedures, program delivery
20
CMAdvisor
alternatives, pricing of water-related services and the
interactions between divergent groups who will be required
to find consensus approaches to the intractable issues
that are increasingly compromising our ability to meet
the objectives of water and wastewater providers.
The catalyst for change may well come from the federal
response to the ongoing economic crisis. The forecast
increases in federal deficits will most likely limit the funds
that will come from Washington, DC and the financing of
operations and capital improvement programs will have to
be increasingly developed from local sources. Local utilities
will most likely have to adopt full-cost user fee based pricing
with less reliance on tax-based sources and this will, in turn,
dictate a stronger enterprise-based management structure.
The Future Is Unlikely to Repeat History
The water and wastewater industry has to respond to many
emerging issues – growing populations, competition for
available water resources, more variable water supply and
environmental conditions in many parts of the country,
aging infrastructure, regulatory requirements, organizational
capacity, and deferred investments. It is projected that an
additional 130,000,000 people will reside in the United States
by the year 2050. About half that population growth will
occur in water short areas of California, Texas and Florida.
In addition to these growing demands for municipal water
services, the needs of aging infrastructure including the Great
Lakes states and northeastern United States will require
substantial investments. This growing population and an
increasingly urban-centric national economy will compete
for water resources that are also required for energy and
food production while being asked to protect and enhance
environmental and riparian conditions.
“This under-pricing of water and wastewater services
has been an artificial elixir to local service providers.”
The rebalancing of how our nation’s water resources are
allocated from a primarily agrarian-based economy to an
urban centric economy that also requires reliable food and
energy resources will require evolutionary policies and sub‑
stantial investment from non-traditional sources. There is
little doubt that society will also demand that environmental
and cultural needs of water are satisfied while the urban
and economic needs are being addressed – this will be a true
test of our ability to meet the triple bottom line objectives of
sustainable planning.
The Financial Needs of the Water
and Wastewater Industry
The US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) completes a
periodic report to Congress on the projected financial needs for
maintaining adequate drinking water and sanitation services
for municipal water and sanitation providers. The most recent
reports (2007 Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and
Assessment, US EPA, February 2009; Clean Watersheds Needs
Survey 2004, US EPA, January 2008) contain details of the
state by state distribution of anticipated capital and operating
financial needs to address the identified needs of the various
community water and sanitation systems.
These reports identify a number of estimates that have been
made for constructing the required infrastructure upgrades,
expansion and rehabilitation with a median projection
through Year 2020 of $324.9 billion. The needs of American
Indian and Alaskan water systems and responding to pro‑
posed or recent regulations add another $9.9 billion over
that same period. The needs of the clean water programs
include capital needs of wastewater treatment plants, com‑
bined sewer and storm water management programs. The
reported clean water needs as of January 2004 are $202.5
billion. Current capital spending for clean water programs
is estimated to be $13 billion per year while drinking water
programs spending is estimated to be $10.4 billion per year.
While current funding sources will continue to support many
of these programs, there is a substantial gap that will have
to be met by increased pricing of services by utilities. From a
capital projects standpoint, it is projected that at least a $10
billion per year deficit occurs in each of the drinking water and
clean water programs. One scenario would suggest that the
shortfall could be closed by increasing the costs of service by
a compounding three to five percent per year above inflation
rates. There are numerous examples where these annual
increases are compressed into shorter and reactive time frames
when cost increases are deferred and a utility must deliver
deferred capital projects with substantial and sustained rate
increases in a politically charged environment.
Similarly, the 20-year gaps in operations and maintenance
funding of municipal water and sanitation providers are
estimated to be about $148 billion for drinking water
systems and $161 billion for clean water systems under
a no-revenue-growth scenario.
Pathways to Respond to the Identified Deficits
Without real growth above inflation rates in pricing in
the costs of service, the projected needs of operating and
constructing the expansions and upgrades of water and
wastewater systems will fall further behind. The objective
of continuing to provide high levels of service will most likely
be met through increasingly higher local costs of service and
more enterprise-based approaches to managing, operating
and delivering services. Today’s electric industry is one likely
model that may describe the water industry in the next
several decades. Alternative project delivery methods, risk and
reward sharing between owners and contractors, regionalized
water systems to capture the purchasing power of larger
service populations and reforms in policy and governance that
reflect water and resource scarcity and need for sustainable
solutions of tomorrow’s world are likely.
There are a number of examples where leading edge water
and sanitation utilities around the country are responding
effectively to the stresses that are now confronting the
industry. These locally-based initiatives are developing
innovative approaches to uses of emerging technologies
and programs such as demand management programs,
desalination and planned indirect potable reclamation,
groundwater recharge and advanced wastewater treatment.
We will continue to develop programs that make more
effective use of marginal quality waters and we will have to
build surface storage reservoirs and trans-basin diversions to
move water to where the needs are critical. More efficient use
of water in the agricultural, municipal and industrial sectors
will be driven by increasing demands and requirements to
balance environmental needs with consumption needs.
Utility managers in the future will deliver water and sanitation
services in a more sustainable but continually reliable manner.
This will most likely require higher costs of service, successfully
addressing competing needs in a complex resource constrained
world and operating these systems using organizational
structures that are increasingly reflective of enterprise-based
principles. This will be challenging but these are not your
conventional plumbing systems any longer.
Peter Binney, PE is vice president and director, Sustainable
Water Planning at Black & Veatch. He can be reached at
binneyp@bv.com.
September/October
21
Legal Corner
Foundation
Contractual Indemnification Provisions and the Recovery of Attorneys’ Fees
A Salute to URS for
Foundation Leadership
Thank You, Foundation Donors!
Visionary: $5,000 per year
Mentor: $500 per year
CMAA’s Foundation focuses on supporting the needs of
owners to successfully implement their capital programs
nationwide. The funds raised by our Foundation are used to
promote CM careers, student scholarships and CM research.
Arcadis/PinnacleOne
Bond Brothers, Inc.
CH2M Hill
CMAA NY/NJ Chapter
Keville Enterprises, Inc.
CMAA Mid-Atlantic Chapter
Parsons Brinckerhoff
DeMatteis International Group
PBS&J
Dick Corporation
Christopher Reseigh, FCMAA
GREYHAWK
URS
HDR
Champion: $2,000 per year
Jacobs Engineering Group
Part Two: Contractual Indemnification Provisions
By Willcox Dunn, Vandeventer Black LLP
Part One of this article, in the previous issue of CM Advisor,
focused on the “American Rule” and “prevailing party”
provisions, also referred to as “attorneys’ fees” provisions.
Prevailing party provisions shift the status quo under the
American Rule, where each party is responsible for its own
attorneys’ fees, to a loser-pays system similar to that under
the British Rule. An express prevailing party provision is fairly
easy to identify, allowing the parties to discuss and negoti‑
ate the terms and ultimately make an informed business
decision to accept, modify or reject the provision. This is
not always the case for broadly-worded indemnification
provisions that appear to address only third-party liability,
but that can be construed by courts as accomplishing more
expansive results. Consider the following example of a
typical, broadly-worded indemnification provision:
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Construction
Manager (Indemnitor) shall indemnify and hold harmless
the Owner (Indemnitee) from and against all claims,
damages, losses and expenses, including, but not limited
to, attorneys’ fees, arising out of or resulting from the
Construction Manager’s performance of its services
under this Agreement.
The parties entering into such an indemnification agreement
may have damages and costs arising from third-party claims
in mind, but the above language does not expressly limit the
scope of the indemnification obligation to third-party claims
and damages. Some courts have interpreted broad language
such as this to include not only damages and costs arising
from third-party claims, but also those arising from claims
made directly by the indemnitee against the indemnitor
unrelated to third-party, pass-through claims and dam‑
ages. For example, armed with a provision such as the above
example, an owner filing a breach of contract claim against
its CM might seek recovery of its attorneys’ fees and costs
from the target of its lawsuit, the CM. In addition to paying
for its own costs of defense, the CM may end up funding
the legal action against itself.
To make matters worse, the owner might not even need
to prevail to obtain recovery of its attorneys’ fees and costs
since the indemnification provision says nothing about
having to prevail in order to trigger the indemnification
obligation. Adding insult to injury, the attorneys’ fees and
costs related to the owner’s first-party claims against the
CM likely do not represent damages for which the CM
otherwise would be liable absent the indemnification
agreement. The fees and costs, therefore, may be excluded
by standard professional liability insurance policies as a
contractual assumption of liability.
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CMAdvisor
From the CM’s perspective, the preferred solution is to
delete such an indemnification provision in its entirety from
the agreement. If the owner insists on an indemnification
provision, the CM could consider limiting the scope of the
provision to third-party damages resulting from the CM’s
negligent performance of its services under the agreement.
Negligence often is the trigger for professional liability
insurance coverage, and with this type of insurance coverage
trigger in place, it is important to include a matching
negligence trigger for the indemnification obligation. The
CM should delete terms and phrases like “claims,” “losses,”
“expenses,” and “attorneys’ fees,” and leave only a reference to
damages. An indemnification obligation limited to damages
is more likely to track the coverage provided under the CM’s
professional liability policy, and less likely to run afoul of a
contractual liability exclusion. Often, a simple explanation
that the original language represents an uninsured risk,
and that the revised language is intended to increase the
likelihood of coverage will convince an owner to agree to
more reasonable terms. If the owner insists on language that
includes attorneys’ fees and costs, the CM could consider
limiting the scope of the provision to third-party damages
resulting from the CM’s negligent performance of its services
under the agreement, including reasonable attorneys’ fees
and costs related to the litigation. Whether this approach is
advisable and the third-party attorneys’ fees and costs will
be covered by insurance may depend on the precise wording
of the CM’s professional liability insurance policy and the
applicable jurisdiction’s definition of “damages.”
Indemnification provisions often seem harmless, but they can
create tremendous liability exposure by shifting significant
risks and responsibilities. Professional liability insurance
brokers and carriers, and attorneys who practice design and
construction law can be valuable resources for addressing
proposed provisions and identifying their inherent risks.
Once the risks have been identified, the CM will be in a better
position to negotiate reasonable terms and make an informed
business decision about these deceptively complicated
provisions that involve the interplay of insurance coverage,
applicable law and practical business concerns.
Willcox Dunn is an attorney with Vandeventer Black LLP. He
can be reached at wdunn@vanblk.com. This article is meant
to bring awareness to this topic and is not intended to be
used as legal advice.
In each issue of CM Advisor, the Foundation Board wishes to
recognize one of our premier Capital Campaign supporters.
This issue, we recognize URS Corporation for their leadership
in this regard. The Company recently expanded their support
of CMAA and joined the campaign as a ‘Visionary’ member.
URS has been a member of CMAA for many years and has
always led by example. This has never been so evident as
under the current direction of our Chairman, Tom Bishop,
PE. Tom, URS’s Vice President, Strategy and Senior Vice
President, URS Division, has been instrumental in CMAA’s
growth over the past year and played a critical role in
attracting new corporate sponsors to the Foundation.
URS also steadfastly supports the growing CM Certification
program, recognizing the need to enhance the CM profes‑
sion in the marketplace for the benefit of our owners. This is
especially true now, as the federal government is allocating
billions of dollars for construction and infrastructure projects
to help revitalize the economy.
With more than $130 billion of stimulus funding set aside
for construction projects, federal and state agencies will
increasingly turn to Construction Managers to ensure
project accountability and the efficient use of public funds.
The stimulus package set aggressive timelines for spending
the money, as well as included detailed transparency and
accountability guidelines. URS believes it is important for
its CMs to complement their technical training with the
business skills that allow them to successfully adapt to the
industry’s ever-changing operating environment. Certified
CMs have the expertise to effectively manage the various
phases of these complex projects, ensure they are com‑
pleted within the specified timetable and meet the quality
standards that our industry has set and our clients demand.
URS recognizes the importance of the CMAA’s certification
program and also encourages all of its CMs to get more
involved in the organization and the CMAA Foundation.
We want to thank URS for being a solid professional force
in our complex marketplace, and a big supporter of CMAA’s
Foundation goals. We also look forward to the continued
growth of the Foundation mission and encourage all of you
to visit the website and get involved as a supporter. Keep
in mind that our Foundation is the only one in the country
completely dedicated to enhancing the CM profession,
something that will pay dividends to all of us.
HNTB, Inc.
Chuck Kluenker, FCMAA
CMAA New England
Regional Chapter
CMAA South Central Texas Chapter
McDonough Bolyard Peck
Summit Associates
Vanir Construction
Management, Inc.
Leader: $1,000 per year
Mansour Aliabadi, FCMAA, CCM
APSI Construction Management
Brookwood Program Management
CMAA Chicago Chapter
CMAA San Diego Chapter
CMAA Southern California Chapter
Fred Kreitzberg, P.E. of the
Kreitzberg Family Foundation
D.J. Mason, P.E.
Project Mediation
Quintessential LLC
RK&K
Rockmore Contracting
Corporation
Swinerton Management
& Consulting
Friend: $50 per year
Jim Ames
Roderick Belcher
Robert Bennett
Joan Berry
Craig Bohlen, CCM
Luis Manuel Carrillo, Jr.
Sawsan Dashti
Kevin English, CCM
John Furman, CCM
Hazen & Sawyer
Mark D. Guleserian
Hill International
David J. Kimmel, CCM
Hoar Program Management
Michael Kueny
Joe McAtee, FCMAA
Charles Kumi
Michael J. Baker, Jr., Inc.
George Lea, CCM
Parsons
Peter Mac Ewan
PSOMAS
Stephen Marshall, CCM
Ken Rice
Monique Miron, CCM
Donald Russell, FCMAA, CCM
Kristina B. Nelson
SGI Construction Management
Jim San Filippo
STV
Carl Sciple, CCM
Urban Engineers, Inc.
H. Rochelle Stachel
Daniel Williams
Kurt Yoshii
Reminder – Career Video Library Available
The CMAA Foundation’s library of four exciting, short
videos promoting careers in CM is available for your
use with prospective employees, students, and staff.
Preview all of the videos on the Foundation’s website.
September/October
23
Member News
Balfour Beatty to Buy
Parsons Brinckerhoff
Turner Awarded Two
CM Contracts
Balfour Beatty, the international
engineering, construction, investment
and services group, has agreed to acquire
Parsons Brinckerhoff for $626 million.
Turner Construction Company has
been awarded a $120 million contract
to manage the construction of Harrah’s
Cherokee Hotel Tower III in Cherokee,
NC. Completion is scheduled for
December 2010.
Parsons Brinckerhoff is one of the
world’s leading professional services
companies. In their fiscal year ended
October 31, 2008, the company had
worldwide revenues of just over $2.3
billion. Employee-owned Parsons Brinck‑
erhoff is headquartered in New York,
with a network of over 100 offices, and
has approximately 12,650 employees.
Prior to closing, the acquisition
will need to be approved by the
shareholders of both organizations.
Baker to Provide Construction
Services on 17 PA Highway
and Bridge Projects
Michael Baker Jr., Inc. has been selected
by the Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation to provide CM support
and construction inspection services
on 17 separate construction projects,
under two separate agreements, with
a total construction value of more
than $77 million. Baker’s fee under
the two-year agreements is $5 million.
The projects range from pavement
overlays and bridge rehabilitations to
full bridge replacements and roadway
reconstruction.
“We are pleased to be able to partner
with PennDOT District 8 on these proj‑
ects,” said Matthew Natale, PE, Baker’s
Pennsylvania construction services
manager. “By leveraging our significant
PennDOT presence, we can assure
the agency that we can deliver these
projects on schedule and at budget.”
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CMAdvisor
The second contract was won for a
medical office building in Kansas
City for the The University of Kansas
Hospital with a contract volume of
$55 million. The project will seek
LEED Certification from the United
States Green Building Council upon
completion in 2011.
HDR to Provide CM for San
Francisco PUC Peninsula Region
HDR Engineering has been selected to
perform CM services for San Francisco
Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC)
Water System Improvement Program
(WSIP) Peninsula Region.
Dave Conover, CCM, National Director of
Construction Services for HDR’s Water
Business Group said HDR’s collaboration
with Shaw Environmental and Infra‑
structure enabled the two companies
to combine their national water supply
infrastructure construction manage‑
ment and environmental compliance
experience. “The Peninsula Regional
projects provide for unique challenges,”
Conover said. “HDR-Shaw addressed
these challenges by offering SFPUC
proactive risk management solutions,
responsive environmental regulatory
compliance and monitoring, seamless
staff integration, superior construction
management leadership, and technical
and environmental expertise.”
The WSIP is one of the largest water
infrastructure programs in the nation
and the largest infrastructure program
ever undertaken by the City and County
of San Francisco. The WSIP is a $4.4 bil‑
lion program which comprises of more
than 80 individual projects in several
regions, including the Peninsula Region.
PBS&J International to
Manage Light Rail Transit
Project in Qatar
PBS&J International, Inc., in asso‑
ciation with Horizon Group Qatar and
Lea+Elliott, has been awarded a contract
by Qatari Diar to provide program and
CM services for the Lusail Light Rail Tran‑
sit (LRT) project. The LRT network of 17.8
kilometers of double-track guideway
serves as the backbone of the future city
of Lusail’s transportation network, pro‑
viding a seamless connection between
communities, and will contribute to the
city’s world-class, modern appeal.
Located north of Qatar’s capital city of
Doha, Lusail is not only Qatar’s largest
domestic real estate project, but also one
of the largest and most elaborate devel‑
opments being undertaken worldwide.
The development is planned to house
approximately 200,000 people and will
include residential, commercial, and
retail opportunities, as well as schools,
medical facilities, shopping centers, golf
courses, and an entertainment district.
The LRT system’s preliminary design
consists of 4 tramway operating lines,
with 29 passenger stations connect‑
ing Lusail’s 17 mixed-use districts. The
PBS&J International team will oversee
the design and construction of approxi‑
mately 35 kilometers of double and
single track at-grade and underground;
aboveground and underground stations
in various configurations; a viaduct
passing with an elevated interconnec‑
tion station; a depot; and an operations,
maintenance, and storage facility.
State Park Reopens with
Assistance from Kwame
Building Group
Construction of the main day-use area at
Johnson’s Shut-ins State Park in Reynolds
County, Missouri, was completed in June
while work continues on the visitors’
center and campgrounds.
Kwame Building Group, Inc. of St. Louis
is providing CM services to the Missouri
Department of Natural Resources on
the redevelopment of the state park,
which was damaged by the breach of
the Taum Sauk Reservoir in December
2005. Kwame is monitoring the recon‑
struction progress as well as providing
ongoing reviews of the architectural,
mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire
protection, and civil engineering draw‑
ings and specifications for compliance
with contractual requirements.
The redeveloped day-use area of the
park opened to the public in June, with
a new boardwalk to provide easy access
for viewing and swimming in the
popular rock-and-river formations of
the shut-ins. The day-use area includes
picnic sites, pedestrian trails, access to
the East Fork of the Black River, several
interpretive shelters and the park store.
Bossardt Completes
Minnesota Senior Center
Chuck Thomsen Joins
MOCA Systems Board
project is in southeastern Tennessee,
approximately 60 miles northeast of
Chattanooga, and has a construction
value of $15 million.
Chuck Thomsen, FAIA, FCMAA has
joined the MOCA Systems Board
of Directors.
Thomsen is well known for his
leadership of 3D/International and
his management of this 500 person
design, management and construction
company until its merger with Parsons
Company in 2006. He is a Chairman
of the Rice Building Institute, a Fellow
with both the American Institute of
Architects (AIA) and the Construction
Management Association of America
(CMAA), and the author of three books.
He was elected to the National Academy
of Construction in 2008. He has a master
of Architecture from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Montoursville Area School
Board Hires Reynolds CM
Montoursville Area School Board
Tuesday has hired Reynolds Construc‑
tion Management, Inc. to oversee
the McCall Middle School renovation
project at a cost of $595,000.
Bossardt Corporation recently com‑
pleted construction for the new $4.2
million Hayes Community and Senior
Center in Apple Valley, Minnesota.
Designed by CNH Architects, this is
the second building in the state of
Minnesota to be certified with Two
Green Globes awards by the Green
Building Initiative. Features included
use of regional materials such as lumber
and concrete block; Energy Recovery
Unit; and recycled construction debris.
The green roof has plastic grids with
native grass and flower plants, which
can be removed for maintenance access.
The Green Globes is a nationally recog‑
nized, third party verification and rating
system for energy-efficient and environ‑
mentally sustainable building design.
Montoursville Superintendent Dominic
Cavallaro said Reynolds is a firm with
a good reputation that has performed
similar work for other school districts
in the area.
PM Firm Focuses on TASK at
Hand in Coquitlam, BC
How do you keep a busy community
arena fully operational while rebuilding
it? That is the greatest challenge, among
many, that TASK Construction Manage‑
ment of Burnaby, British Columbia has
been dealing with on an ongoing project
in Coquitlam. The company is involved in
a $62.4 million remake of the Coquitlam
Sports Centre.
Among other things, it will bring a
cluster of buildings, identified by
Sandwell Engineering as the worst five
buildings in Coquitlam from a seismic
point of view, up to current standards.
The project involves constructing two
new arenas, upgrading an existing arena
and demolishing an existing arena
annex and curling facility. One of the
new arenas will be used for curling.
Ralph Peterson, Former
CH2M HILL CEO, Dies
Ralph R. Peterson, longtime CEO, chair‑
man and leader of CH2M HILL, passed
away on September 1, 2009, at home in
Denver, after a long struggle with cancer.
CEO since 1991, Peterson joined CH2M
HILL in 1965. He was employee No.
148. The company now has more than
25,000 employees. He took the company
from revenue of about $400 million to
more than $6 billion in revenue today.
KCI Wins Maryland,
Tennessee Contracts
The Maryland State Highway
Administration has selected KCI
for a $10 million open-end contract
to provide construction inspection
services for projects in MSHA’s District
Six, which includes Garrett, Allegany
and Washington Counties.
KCI has also been awarded its first
Tennessee Department of Transporta‑
tion project, providing construction
engineering and surveying services for
improvements to SR-30 (White Street)
from Athens to east of County Road
609 in McMinn County. The 3.6 mile
“Ralph loved our company and all of
its employees very much,” said CH2M
HILL CEO Lee McIntire. “His passion,
dedication and leadership built CH2M
HILL into the place that we are all so
proud of today. I will miss his intellect,
his ability to deal with complex issues
and his desire to help others succeed.
He was an industry icon. Our thoughts
are with Betty, their family and many
friends around the world.”
September/October
25
Chapter News
President’s Corner
New England Chapter
Southern Nevada Chapter
In April, the Chapter held its 15th Annual Awards Program
in Boston with more than 190 industry professionals, guests,
and Construction Management students in attendance.
Featured guest speaker, James A. Aloisi Jr., Commonwealth
of Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation, addressed
the gathering regarding pending transportation reform in
Massachusetts, which will consolidate numerous agencies
under a comprehensive transportation group.
The Chapter held its second Past Presidents Scholarship
Golf Tournament in April 2009 at Black Mountain Golf and
Country Club in Henderson, Nevada. Four of the Chapter’s
past presidents, Ray Brady, Adrian Clark, Jim Morris, and David
Alexander organized the event with the help of a number of
key volunteers. The tournament was very successful.
A Distinguished Service Award was presented to long-time
CMAA member and New England Past Chapter President
Rich Martone. Rich was cited for his long, enthusiastic, and
tireless service to both CMAA National and to the Chapter,
including four years as president during which the Chapter
grew and prospered.
Sam Sleiman, CCM, PE, Director of Capital Programs and
Environmental Affairs of the Massachusetts Port Authority
(Massport), was presented the Person of the Year Award.
This award recognized his commitment to CMAA including
his support for Construction Management certification,
sponsorship of a Standards of Practice Course, support
for membership by committing Massport to a CMAA
Owner Organization Membership, and promotion of
the construction management philosophy.
The Chapter has a longstanding scholarship program
and 11 students from Northeastern University, Worcester
Polytechnic Institute, Roger Williams University, and
Wentworth Institute of Technology were recognized for
their achievements with scholarships totaling $22,000.
This year, $4,000 was given away in sponsorship money.
The golf tournament raised more than $3,000 to be available
for future scholarships. The chapter looks forward to
providing much needed support to its local CM students
and has already scheduled golf lessons to prepare for the
2010 Golf Tournament.
Colorado State University (CSU) Student Chapter
The Student Chapter volunteered for The National Center
for Craftsmanship (NCC) Deconstruct Project in Fort Collins,
Colorado. Members helped in the process of hand-dismantling
three local buildings, a farm house and two barns, and prepar‑
ing the material for reuse and recycling. The NCC is a non-profit
organization dedicated to the preservation, enhancement,
and sustainability of quality craftsmanship. DeConstruct
teaches construction skills while providing an alternative
way to take down buildings. Youth and adults learn emerging
deconstruction technology and LEED certification protocols.
The students also participated in the annual site tour. The
chapter toured the I-25 State Highway 119 to State Highway
66 project. The project consists of a 3.5-mile lane expansion
from four to six lanes and the replacement of five bridges.
Students met the resident engineer as well as inspectors from
PBS&J and asked questions about the project and the role of
an owner’s representative. The CSU Student Chapter would like
to thank PBS&J for their time in setting up this site tour.
Professional Development Calendar
National Conference & Trade Show
October 25–27
Orlando, FL
Upcoming Webinars:
Thursday, November 5
Documentation & Proof of
Construction Delays
Thursday, December 3
Forums for Resolving
Construction Disputes
Thursday, November 12
Ethics in CM
Thursday, December 10
Beyond the Presentation –
Effective Q & A and De-Briefing
Defining a Federal Career in CM
By Bruce D’Agostino, FCMAA, CAE
In recent months, an impressive crosssection of the Construction Manage‑
ment industry, led by CMAA members,
has come together in a concerted effort
to establish CM as a profession recog‑
nized and supported throughout the
U.S. government.
The key to this effort is a proposal that
the Office of Personnel Management, which administers all
employment and benefits policies for the civilian sector of
the federal government, create a new occupational series
0820, Construction Manager.
CMAA, and in particular George Lea, CCM, of the Army Corps
of Engineers, have taken the lead in advocating this new
occupational series. We have been joined in our effort by
a wide range of academic authorities and by such other
industry organizations as the Associated General Contractors
and the American Council for Construction Education.
By recognizing the CM profession and providing a defined
series of jobs through which individuals can advance, OPM
would make it possible for federal CMs to obtain continuing
education, attend job-related events, and join professionally
relevant associations, among other benefits.
As our coalition pointed out in a recent submission to OPM:
“The federal government has evolved in their execution of
construction, performing less in-house design and utilizing
more public sector contracts. This demands a different skill
set than current staff architects and engineers, the technical
professionals, are trained for…However, the hiring process of
the federal government has not followed this development
and has now allowed a void to be developed in its personnel
management criteria which do not require or recognize the
need for or benefit from the professional Construction Man‑
ager. With this void, government offices have little chance
to recruit, hire and employ this category of highly educated
professionals who have developed a foundation in the skills,
experience, critical decision-making ability, and respect for
the various talents of the design-related professionals who
together make up the construction team.”
CMAA was one of the earliest supporters of the new occu‑
pational series, writing as early as April 2008 to call OPM’s
attention to our Standards of Practice, Code of Ethics, and
certification program. We have further pointed out to OPM
that the Certified Construction Manager (CCM) credential
has been strongly supported by such major players as the
Corps of Engineers and the General Services Administration.
GSA has also added a new item to its schedule of Professional
Engineering Services, identifying CM as a distinct service that
can be procured separately from other types of engineering.
“Our joint initiative seeks to address a very serious
problem confronting the government in its effort
to manage construction more effectively.”
This effort is an excellent example of what an effective
association can do, as well as how vital it is to have dedicated
and active members. George Lea has been a key player in
strengthening the relationship between CMAA and the
Corps, and has been indefatigable in his support of CM
certification and professionalism. By taking the lead in this
effort with OPM, he is helping to extend the benefits of our
professionalism to the entire U.S. government. Linda Phillips,
CCM, of GSA has also been actively involved and made major
contributions to this initiative.
Federal projects, programs, agencies, departments, and the
taxpayers will all be the winners.
As, of course, will CMAA. Professional CMs hired under this
new occupational series will be natural candidates for CMAA
membership and a prime audience for our Professional
Development, publications, events and other services. CMAA
will help them do their jobs better, which will enhance the
profession’s standing and create still more opportunity.
All of this happens as a result of leadership and individual
commitment.
We further noted: “Those with Construction Management
degrees who are hired using non-professional position
descriptions typically leave the government after a short
tenure due to the lack of a career path or recognition for
their education and abilities.”
OPM’s decision is expected later this year.
See the full schedule of future CMAA PD events.
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CMAdvisor
September/October
27