To resolve construction claims, you need answers. TRAUNER can help you get them. Our broad base of experience working with all facets of the engineering, architecture, and construction fields gives us the nuanced eye to uncover key facts. That’s essential to helping you resolve a dispute—and get back to work. TRAUNER offers professional and technical expertise in:

• Preparation and Evaluation of Construction Claims
• Delay, Inefficiency, Acceleration, and Other Impact Analyses
• Evaluating, Pricing, and Negotiating Change Orders
• Claims Avoidance Strategy and System Implementation
• Contract and Specification Interpretation
• Evaluation of Differing Site Conditions, Changed Conditions, and Other Changes
• Evaluation of Design Errors and Construction Defects
• Cost Analysis and Auditing
• Negotiation and Mediation Assistance
• Litigation Support
• Expert Witness Testimony

Of course, the best construction claim is the one you avoid. TRAUNER is nationally recognized for our proactive approach in the prevention of disputes. As your advisor, we provide guidance up front that can help you manage risks, identify potential pitfalls, and avoid costly problems.

When claims arise, TRAUNER excels. We have decades of experience dissecting disputes, so we can get to the crux of the issue without bias or emotion. Think bloodhound, rather than bulldog! We use practical, court-tested approaches to analyze changes, delays, acceleration, inefficiencies, damages and other issues that may be in dispute. Our reports are clear and concise, with in-depth supporting documentation. You don’t need an expert to tell you what you want to hear.

You need an expert from TRAUNER who can provide an impartial and factual appraisal of the findings. That’s essential to resolving a claim.

If a dispute advances to litigation, TRAUNER can continue to provide objective analysis all the way to the courtroom. We offer a full range of litigation services, including:

• Preparing and Answering Interrogatories
• Preparing Questions for Direct Testimony and Cross Examination
• Assisting with Preparation of Pre- and Post-trial Briefs and Motions
• Preparing Demonstrative Exhibits, Including Graphics and Models

We are also highly qualified to provide expert testimony at deposition, trial, arbitration, or before a dispute resolution board. Our role is to erase ambiguity—communicating the facts and getting to the truth. As a testament to our integrity, we enjoy referrals and repeat business from both sides of a dispute.

No one knows Critical Path Method scheduling like we do. For decades, TRAUNER has advocated the use of CPM scheduling, teaching contractors, owners, and A/E firms how to develop and use this important, effective tool. Our firm has written dozens of CPM scheduling specifications for public agencies and private owners across the country. TRAUNER even drafted the model CPM scheduling specification for highway construction for Oracle’s Primavera P6 software.

TRAUNER also reviews and analyzes CPM schedules for owners, construction managers, and contractors on many large and complex projects constructed throughout the country. We also help contractors prepare accurate CPM schedules for their projects. Because TRAUNER also provides delay analysis services as part of our claims analysis work, we understand the significance and consequences of CPM scheduling better than most.

Our knowledge of CPM scheduling and project controls brings great value to our clients. TRAUNER performs all schedule reviews with a trained eye toward identifying potential delays and extra work issues, while also providing real-time claims avoidance and mitigation services. Those value-added services are an essential aspect of schedule monitoring—and are critical to the overall success of your complex construction projects.

Standard Specification Update and Improvement

A construction project can only be as good as its specifications. So start things off right. Thanks to our experience in analyzing, managing, and administering complex construction projects, we know just how to develop clear, complete specifications for your project that will get the job done and avoid claims. We’ll work with you to draft contract general provisions and make recommendations on contract language to effectively manage risk and reduce claims. Our electronically-produced specifications are available in Microsoft Word, PDF, HTML, and Epub formats.

Contracts, Guidelines, and Manuals

It’s no surprise that public and private owners continually look for new ways to build faster, better, and cheaper. Not only does this stimulate new approaches to contracting for and delivering construction projects, it’s revived some old concepts, as well. Design-Build projects, for example, have brought back the master-builder concept. These trends shift greater responsibility for cost, quality, and time to the contractor, necessitating changes in requests for proposal and contract documents. TRAUNER stays at the forefront of these industry changes, performing extensive research and helping clients with:

• Risk Analysis for Projects Using Design-Build or Alternative Contracting Methods
• Development of RFPs for Two-Step Design-Build Construction Projects
• Selection Criteria for Innovative Project Delivery Systems
• Long-term Warranty Provisions for Selected Products, or Components of Construction Projects
• Pre-qualification procedures for construction
• Performance Specifications and Criteria for Design-Build and Warranty projects
• Special Provisions for Bidding and Managing Time
• Special Quality Control and Quality Assurance Requirements and Acceptance Plans
• Modifications to Standard Provisions for Construction Contracts to Address Innovative Contracting and Project Delivery Methods

Owner’s Representative/Advisory Services

A capital expansion construction program can be daunting. As the owner, you undoubtedly will face countless questions and dilemmas: Will the contractor bids come in too low? Are the plans and specifications complete and accurate, avoiding unnecessary change orders? Will disputes over the interpretation of the plans and specifications delay the project? When are the contractors entitled to time extensions?

That’s why it pays to have TRAUNER at your side. We routinely work on multi-million-dollar projects, and deal with these kinds of questions every day. We’ll guide you through the process and recommend ways to manage your exposure to risk. We can also provide assistance in architect selection, design review, preparation of bid packages, estimating and budgeting, construction manager selection, review of plans and specifications, constructability reviews, contractor procurement, construction oversight, monitoring and inspection, quality control, value engineering, and risk management. We’ll be on hand to offer advice on all the day-to-day quandaries that come up.

No one can guarantee the success of a construction project. As the owner, you bear the full responsibility day in and day out. But TRAUNER can help you reduce your burden and help manage your risk. And that certainly helps you sleep better at night.

Contractor’s Advisory Services

As the contractor, you are onsite dealing with ongoing construction every day. But sometimes you may need a second pair of eyes, someone who can look at challenges from a different angle. We’ll put your project planning and controls through the paces. We’ll give you and your executives an extra level of confidence that your approach is solid.

• How will new issues and challenges affect your plan?
• How will changes impact your schedule?
• When and how should you inform the owner of issues?
• Is your documentation adequate and effective?

These are questions TRAUNER can answer. But we won’t just answer them, we’ll advise you throughout the process, as well.

We’ll even help you write change orders that are not only persuasive, but will make sure the owner has all the information it needs to make the right decision.

Troubled Project Turnaround

Not everybody is a construction expert. If you are responsible for a project but things aren’t going as you hoped, TRAUNER can help. We can be brought on at any stage of a project to expedite the flow of information among the project team members, make sure that problems are being addressed, that the team members are fulfilling their contract responsibilities, and most important, to instill and maintain a team approach to the project.

Action is critical when projects are in trouble. We’ll prepare an action plan to be used to monitor and manage the completion of the project. We’ll assign responsibilities and completion dates for each of the tasks that are required for project completion.

We will inspect the site on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to monitor the work and make sure the action plan is being implemented, expedite issue resolution, and check that the construction manager, designers, and contractors are fulfilling their contract requirements.

We’ll keep you up to date and well-informed on project progress, action items list, schedule, team performance, and other important issues. We’ll see your project through close-out, move-in, build-out, testing, and commissioning as appropriate.

We’ll get the project back on its feet and see it through till the end, all while looking out for your interests.

TRAUNER has the experience and expertise to evaluate situations and make appropriate recommendations when projects have been halted by disputes or defaults, have deficient work in place, or just merit monitoring. With the ability to focus on your needs and respond quickly, we can help you complete the project, mitigate and resolve costly claims, and protect your interests.

Our surety services include:

• Determining Project Status
• Estimating Completion Costs
• Project Monitoring
• Project Completion
• Project Re-bids
• Scheduling
• Bid Review

We regard ourselves as the guardian of your bottom line, and the sponsors of the project’s successful completion. We’ll help you fulfill all aspects of your construction and project obligations. When someone drops the ball, we have the manpower, project knowledge, and expertise to put staff in place, anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice, in order to complete your project.

GMP Contract Audits

• What’s covered by the guaranteed maximum price, and what’s not?
• Do these costs fall within the scope of that “exception” or “clarification”?
• What is the “baseline scope” against which changes are measured?
• Are those costs properly charged to general conditions, or should they be part of the reimbursable cost of the work?
• What savings flow into the contingency, and what costs are properly reimbursed out the contingency?
• If the CM/GC self-performed work on a lump sum basis, were self-performance costs properly segregated from general conditions costs?
• Were staff costs to be paid on a cost-reimbursable basis or at agreed-upon rates?
• Was overtime billed for exempt employees who are not paid overtime?

These are just a few of the questions that can come up in a GMP close-out audit. Figuring out the right answers to these questions has little to do with accounting practices. Rather, they require a depth of construction industry knowledge and years of hands-on experience with, and understanding of, how GMP and cost-based contracts work.

We have that knowledge, experience, and expertise and are prepared to help you work your way to the appropriate close-out of your contract.

TRAUNER can also bring that knowledge and experience to you and your project upfront, by equipping you with the proper management tools, helping you develop the proper management skills, and training your administrative staff to address issues appropriately.

Performance Audits

TRAUNER performance audits are a fresh set of eyes on your program. We’ll perform an objective, independent analysis of the practices and procedures related to the management of your construction projects. That new perspective can lead to substantial improvements, particularly related to cost, time management, and the administration of change orders.

What does TRAUNER bring to the table? Experience and expertise. Not only are we seasoned construction consulting professionals, we also draw upon our wealth of academic research and training in contract administration and construction management best practices. We are widely regarded as leaders in the field, teaching and implementing best practices to our clients and, through seminars, to thousands of other construction professionals around the world.

What we won’t bring to the table are stock solutions. TRAUNER understands the uniqueness of every project and program, and the dangers inherent in recommending generic solutions to complex problems. Our company is founded on the careful and thorough study of issues. We recommend creative, yet practical, solutions that can be implemented by real people in real organizations.

Research has always been an integral part of TRAUNER. We have established a substantial database of information based on years of practical experience.  The results are technical and management consulting services that are on the leading edge of our industry. These are research tools grounded not in academia, but in the real world of engineering and architecture, project management, construction, and operations.

When you work with TRAUNER, you’ll not only benefit from our decades of experience in the business, you’ll benefit from the latest technologies and construction methodologies too. We’re at the forefront of our industry—which is why we’re often invited to speak to public agencies and major corporations throughout the world. Over the years, TRAUNER has conducted hundreds of training seminars on topics such as:

• Delays, Acceleration and Inefficiencies
• Construction Impacts and Damages
• Construction Claims
• Construction Project Management
• CPM Scheduling
• Alternative Contracting
• Specification Writing
• Design-Build
• Risk Management
• GMP Contracting

We’re eager to pass that expertise on to you, as well.