When Lori Kahikina joined the Honolulu Rapid Transit Authority in 2021, its reputation was “horrible,” she recalled. Costs and delays for the city’s planned 20-mile light rail project to be built in three phases, the first fully automated system in the United States, had skyrocketed and public support was waning.
Est he let go of non-essential staff, scrapped a public-private partnership plan for the third segment and “asked for help” from various city agencies and construction experts, he told attendees at the annual conference of the Construction Management Association of America in San Francisco in October. 24 to 29.
Without cultivating agency relationships and breaking down silos, “we couldn’t have opened the first segment,” he said. The first 10-mile section opened last year, with the second 5-mile section to follow in 2025. The agency this summer awarded Tutor Perini a $1.66 billion contract for the third 3-mile section miles and six stations.
Kahikina also revoked a $400 million indefinite delivery/indefinite amount contract, then had lunch with the contractor to explain his reasons, he recalled. The contractor eventually won a new contract.
Construction managers should “understand the big picture” of a project and proactively get involved in problem solving rather than just relaying messages between owners and contractors, he said.
She and other panelists conveyed that communication and documentation at every stage of the project are key to success, including minimizing complaints and community opposition.
For the Port of Los Angeles, after the project is complete, “we get the whole team together … and go over the issues we had,” said Charles Adams, deputy chief port engineer. “The lessons learned are documented and the report is in a place where everyone can access it.”
The port leads constructability assessments midway through design and has designers make a pitch to reviewers, he added, comparing the process to renovating an apartment while working with tenants.
The agency holds quarterly contractor sessions and uses “full documentation,” including meeting minutes, inspector reports and camera photos of construction sites. If a conflict with a contractor can’t be resolved quickly, “we bring in an unbiased consultant to tell us what we’re not seeing,” he said.
The Port of Long Beach started a risk assessment program in 2012 and established a risk registry by 2023, said Angel Palma, the port’s senior civil engineer. The 30% designs are run through a Monte Carlo simulation, producing 1,000 iterations to establish a contingency fund, he said. After the project is completed, a lessons-learned workshop is held and new risks are added to a database, Palma added.
The city of San Jose, Calif., relies heavily on its construction manager consultant Stantec to help it execute a 10-year, $1.4 billion capital plan and navigate a learning curve with design-build , said Kapil Verma, deputy director of capital improvement. projects “Why did we need a CM on a design-build job? We softened the blow on the learning curve,” he said.
He noted that the city has done three design-build projects, including a new $114 million cogeneration facility and two low-cost design-build projects.
The method hasn’t necessarily made projects move faster or cheaper, but “we manage risk better,” added Mariana Chávez-Vázquez, general director of the San José Regional Water Facility.
