Services · Construction scheduling

Construction Schedule Consultant and CPM Scheduling

CPM baseline schedules, schedule updates and reviews, recovery schedules, and owner or contractor schedule review, from Oxley's Clearwater office, for projects primarily in Florida, with more than 10 out-of-state cases and consulting matters.

A construction schedule consultant is most useful while the project is still running. The work is to build or test a critical path method (CPM) schedule that matches the contract and the way the job will actually be built, and to keep that schedule honest as conditions change. If a time dispute comes later, the baseline, the updates and the narratives are the record the analysis has to start from.

Oxley does this work for owners, developers, public entities, general contractors and subcontractors. We act for only one party on a project. Forensic delay analysis and testimony, once a dispute is underway, are described on the construction delay expert witness page.

Daniel R. Zorrilla, J.D., BSBC, CGC, CFCC, leads the firm. Scheduling support comes from David Hengelbrok, P.E., PSP, Sr. Schedule Consultant, and Jeremy Easen, CGC, Construction Scheduling Consultant.

CPM baseline schedules

The baseline is the measuring stick for every later update and time request. For a contractor, Oxley can prepare a CPM baseline at a level of detail suited to the contract, with a narrative that explains sequence, logic and the assumptions behind durations. For an owner, developer or public entity, Oxley can review a submitted baseline against the schedule specification and against itself: whether the sequence is buildable, whether the critical path is credible, and what would follow from accepting it.

A useful baseline is more than a tidy printout. Constraints, calendars, float and the logic under the bars all affect calculated dates. Those choices should be visible, and consistent with the contract, before the schedule is accepted.

Schedule updates and reviews

Updates record what actually started and finished, what remains, and what the forecast now is. For a contractor, Oxley can prepare periodic updates from field records, with a short narrative for the period covering progress, logic changes and emerging delay. For an owner or a lender's representative, Oxley can review each update against the previous period and against daily reports, pay applications and other project records, and flag unexplained revisions in logic or duration.

Native schedule files (for example, Primavera P6 .xer files) are more useful than PDFs alone, because they show the relationships and settings a printout conceals.

Recovery schedules

When a project has fallen behind, the contract may require a recovery schedule: a revised CPM network showing how the remaining work is proposed to meet a completion or milestone date, or what date is now realistic and why. Oxley can prepare a recovery schedule for a contractor, or review one for an owner, against the current approved update, the remaining scope and the contract's scheduling rules.

A recovery schedule is a plan, not a finding that delay was or was not excusable. Questions of entitlement, and how any concurrent delay would be treated, depend on the contract and applicable law, which are for counsel and the tribunal. If the issue has already become a claim, see delay expert work and, where a measured time impact is needed, time impact analysis or TIA review.

Owner and contractor schedule review

Owners, developers and public entities often need a second reading of a baseline, an update, a recovery schedule or a time-impact analysis before they accept it. Contractors need the same kind of review when an owner's comments, a rejected submittal or a looming liquidated-damages date puts the schedule itself in issue. In both cases the question is practical: what does this schedule actually show, what does the record support, and what should be corrected or documented now.

Related owner-side work includes help with schedule specifications and progress monitoring. Related contractor-side work includes progress monitoring and extension-of-time requests.

Fixed-fee and tiered pricing

For baseline schedules, schedule updates and schedule reviews, fixed-fee and tiered pricing is available as an alternative to hourly billing. The fee depends on the project, the contract's scheduling requirements and the scope of the assignment. We quote the arrangement before work begins.

This fee arrangement applies to scheduling work during a project. Expert witness and forensic delay assignments are scoped separately.

Hourly billing remains available when the scope is still being defined, or when the work is likely to change as the project develops.

What to send for a first conversation

Conflicts are checked first. Please send only party names and a short nonconfidential description until we confirm. Once the engagement is in place, a first scheduling review goes faster with:

  • The contract, general and supplementary conditions, and the schedule specification
  • The baseline and every update in native format, with narratives and review comments
  • Daily reports, photographs, inspection records and meeting minutes
  • Change orders, RFIs, notices of delay and any time extension or recovery-schedule submissions, with the responses

Call 727-821-9190 or send a message. Office: 13830 58th St N, Suite 403, Clearwater, FL 33760.

Location pages: Clearwater, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, Hillsborough County and Pasco County.