Three Trends that Slow Construction Projects
Continuing on from yesterdays post, there are 3 trends that we have come across that slow down the construction process. The first trend we see is the level of participants it takes to get through the permitting process.
"“There are so many people who want to have some say over a project,” he said. “You have to meet so many parking spaces, per unit. It needs to be this far back from the sight lines. You have to use this much reclaimed water. You didn’t have 30 people sitting in a hearing room for the approval of a permit 40 years ago.”
We recommend having a highly organized process that does not allow for issues to get out of hand. Anything you can do to stay on task and focused will go a long way towards creating efficiency and reaching your goals - meeting deadlines and staying within your budget. This is an area that we advise clients on where we work to eliminate drag in the process.
"The Wharton School of Business, for example, tracks building regulations across cities, and Goolsbee and Syverson tested regulatory burden against construction productivity. There was a slight relationship, but nothing impressive.
The second trend is not ensuring you are meeting all of the regulations, building codes, ADA compliance and so on with a project. Even though the relationship between making construction less efficient and regulation may not be impressive, it is definitely a factor. Also recognize that bigger the project the more likely there are there going to be significant hurdles to get through.
Get out in front of these issues, have a review process, and ensure you are compliant as mistakes can be very time consuming and costly. We partner with our clients to ensure these factors do not get in the way of getting your project done on time and on budget.
"National concrete prices were up 14.8% at the end of the year compared to December 2021, according to an Associated General Contractors of America analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index."
The third trend comes down to your ability to source materials and at the right price. I continue to hear about this problem on an ongoing basis with some issues being locally driven.
"But several Chicago-area contractors—as well as quotes from local concrete suppliers they shared with ENR—say prices are up by nearly 30% for some common mixes and more than 40% in some cases compared to last spring."
I am hearing from clients more and more about materials and not having them on time. Some developers are looking at more foreign sources for materials but these take extra time for shipping and then there are the geopolitical issues that can arise as we have seen with Russia and more recently with China. Trade is often the go-to weapon for getting countries in line and it is wielded often. Delays once again can be very costly and you cannot build if you do not have anything to build with.
A little planning can go a long way in keeping you on track and have a back up plan because stuff happens. Leave us a comment, we would love to hear from you.
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