I’ve been considering this post for over two weeks and the situation changes daily. I’m saddened by the damage done, lives overturned. Yet we all depend on getting back to work as some point.
I’m assuming that you are evaluating the status of your organization and are now circling back to your capital improvement project. Everybody’s deliberations will be different and you will probably toggle back and forth between optimism and pessimism. Keep your project team in the loop. They may be able to add some insights, but at some point you will reach at least tentative conclusions.
If you decide to abandon the project, just stop work. Tell everybody the situation, and move on.
If you think this is just a pause, but you have to stop work, maybe for quite a while, it’s worth the effort to make a soft landing. Have your team collect information, prepare a document describing progress to date, outstanding issues and questions for the future. Otherwise, a lot of information will be lost.
If you have bills related to your project, talk to everybody. Pay them if you can. But if you’re facing an impossible cash flow situation, don’t just go quiet out of embarrassment. Talk to your team about a partial or longer term payment plan.
But if you have some resources and want to continue, go slowly at first. It’s a good time to question everything. Reevaluate and lay out all options. Circle your project team and look at your schedule and work plan. What can you still do and where will progress be thwarted?
You may be able to make prudent assumptions and move forward but understand and make allowances for the associated risks.
No matter where you should reevaluate the following
- Program. Does your plan in general still apply?
- Budget, cash flow, financial feasibility and schedule. Look at everything and make best case and worst case assumptions.
- Evaluate the construction industry. Nobody knows how and when the industry will emerge and what the impact on prices and supply chains will be. You need good advice.
If you are just starting out
- If your next step was to hire your project manager and architect, see my post Building Your Project Team. The most helpful advisor, right now, will be your Project Manager. You may not proceed immediately with design but your team will be able to help you understand what is happening in the construction industry and position you to proceed when it’s time.
You’re in early design phase
- If you are engaged in the early design work. That may be able to proceed. Your team will help you adjust the process to current realities.
- If haven’t yet brought in a contractor. Do that immediately. Having a contractor on board is the best way to help you navigate the construction industry as it emerges from this crisis. See my post Selecting a Contractor
- The planning approval process is in flux. Every jurisdiction will be different. You may or may not be able to meet remotely with planners and ask questions, and even file applications. At worst you can have applications prepared and ready to file when it’s possible. Will there be a rush of applications?
- Surveys, geotechnical report, hazardous materials evaluation, utility investigation, existing conditions survey & destructive testing – Your team can make educated assumptions. It may be better to defer work in areas where no good guess can be made. Evaluate risks and assigning appropriate contingencies. Doing this sort of field work might be first on the list of events that can commence. Be ready to engage when it’s possible.
You are mid-construction documents
- You may have all the early project site evaluations done so you should be able to get quite close to completing your construction documents.
- Construction cost estimating is going to be a challenge and I’m assuming that you have already engeged a general contractor. You may be faced with unexpectedly higher or lower costs. I could imagine either. Developing a larger than usual list of additive and deductive bid alternates may help you to adjust your project to price fluctuatons.
- Everything will take longer. As you work, you will get a feel for how your design team responds to the situation. Be flexible.
You are close to starting construction
- As with planning applications, processing building permit applications in each jurisdiction will be different. Be ready to apply as soon as you can.
- You selected your contractor before this all started. With the help of your project manager, you need to take a clear-eyed look at their viability going forward.
- Assuming they are fine, your contractor will be your guide to sub-contractor bidding and which sub-contractor will still be viable when everybody goes back to work.
- Your team should try to figure out how and when everybody will go back to work. Schedules need to remain tentative.
All this positive action seems so far from today but we hope.