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War Memorial Stadium Update

If the stadium isn't ready, it is Exhibit Z to the long list of flubs by UW and its project/construction oversight flailing and failings.
 
If the stadium isn't ready, it is Exhibit Z to the long list of flubs by UW and its project/construction oversight flailing and failings.
I do consulting work in the AE industry.... Something has happened in the last 15 years when it comes to projects being completed on time and on budget. It's not just UW. University/higher Ed projects are among the worst offenders.
 
Interesting

My theory is that over that time span (last 15 years) the owners and owners representatives (pm's, facility engineers..etc) have lost a ton of expertise. The people in those positions used to be very knowledgeable and experienced. There has been major brain drain there...it's a thankless position with not the highest pay so it sort of makes sense. It's not like the new generation is dumb...they just don't know what they don't know. For instance (and this is just one example), contractors get paid for schedule extensions...so they are incentivized to look very hard for design omissions that will result in schedule over-runs...or could be construed to create a schedule over-run. Architects and engineers are not perfect so there will always be issues on any large project and the condensed modern design schedules mean that modern 100% plans often have more things missing in them than the plans issued by Arch/Eng 20+ years ago. PM's and Owners representatives in the past would take a hard line with the contractors. They would push very hard on schedule.....The current group is very deferential to contractors. I don't want to sound anti-contractor...good ones are great, but when the money incentivizes being good at paperwork surrounding generating change orders and RFI's and not at being good at your trade...something has been lost.
 
I do consulting work in the AE industry.... Something has happened in the last 15 years when it comes to projects being completed on time and on budget. It's not just UW. University/higher Ed projects are among the worst offenders.
Yeah, large contractors are notoriously corrupt and overcharge as a business model. Denver ran off the original contractor of DEN remodel a couple years ago for this.
 
Yeah, large contractors are notoriously corrupt and overcharge as a business model. Denver ran off the original contractor of DEN remodel a couple years ago for this.
I am not familiar with the remodel contractor issue, but I am familiar with how DEN shoots itself in the foot. Not many know that the property the airport is on used to have 64 oil and gas wells. They are all plugged now but used to generate $10million annually in net income for DIA. They could have generated more but the City and County of Denver required contractors to pay “prevailing wage”. For union workers that was not an issue, but determining the equivalent job for oilfield workers who are not unionized was a challenge. They ended up getting a higher wage than normal so of course we had to raise our rates to make up the difference. The workers loved it and DIA didn’t seem to mind paying the higher than market rate for our service. The plugged wells could still be producing but the powers that be wanted to virtue signal their concern for the environment.
 
I am not familiar with the remodel contractor issue, but I am familiar with how DEN shoots itself in the foot. Not many know that the property the airport is on used to have 64 oil and gas wells. They are all plugged now but used to generate $10million annually in net income for DIA. They could have generated more but the City and County of Denver required contractors to pay “prevailing wage”. For union workers that was not an issue, but determining the equivalent job for oilfield workers who are not unionized was a challenge. They ended up getting a higher wage than normal so of course we had to raise our rates to make up the difference. The workers loved it and DIA didn’t seem to mind paying the higher than market rate for our service. The plugged wells could still be producing but the powers that be wanted to virtue signal their concern for the environment.
I know all about it. I went over some of those 6s. The city has climate goals to reach in ordinance, unfortunately, and keeping those wells producing precludes hitting the mandated carbon emissions numbers. Stupid, but there you are.
 

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