Evolution of Contractor’s Construction Schedule to Meet Engineer’s Satisfaction

With the increasing complexity of construction projects, proper planning and control of project activities now represent key issues in the management function. Pre-tender planning leading to a cost estimate is normally used as a baseline for project control in the subsequent project stages. That is, construction planning and cost estimation are done in parallel to reach a realistic cost estimate. However, not enough scheduling can be done at the tender stage because scheduling requires a certain level of detail for the work items. It is proposed that the misconception that the contractor is able to submit a full-fledged detailed construction schedule on awarding of the contract, followed later by regular updates, be replaced with a rolling-wave concept that permits work items with different levels of detail to be shown simultaneously in any version of the schedule. A procedure for generating the first construction program and gradually developing it during the construction phase is proposed. This procedure is aimed at allowing engineers and contractors the opportunity to understand the intrinsic principles for proper administration of the construction schedule.