C E 433 Test 1

Front 1

What is the risk of the contractor performing work prior to delivery of the notice to proceed?

Back 1

There is no contract at that point and time so if the owner is not obligated to pay for anything done before the start of the contract.

Front 2

What is a progress payment?

Back 2

A payment, usually made on a monthly basis for work completed, from the owner to the contractor that alleviates financial hardship faced by the contractor

Front 3

Describe the legal significance of the term "time is of the essence"

Back 3

Ensures that all parties know that time is an elemental aspect of the contract. Gives a greater validity to the inclusion of liquidated damages provisions, and allows owners to pursue claims for breach of contract when contractors do not fufill the contracts time requirements.

Front 4

What is a progress schedule and how is it used in a contract?

Back 4

Agreed upon by both owner and contractor. used as a basis for checking the progress of the work. Can vary in level of detail. Can show the critical path, milestones and progress payments.

Front 5

With no contract langauge on the subject who is assumed to own schedule float.

Back 5

The contractor

Front 6

Examples of unavoidable delays?

Back 6

Acts of god, war, change order, cases beyond the control of the contractor or the subcontractors and suppliers that could not have been avoided by the exercise of care, prudence, foresight and diligence

Front 7

Examples of Avoidable Delays?

Back 7

Normally anticipated weather, calling a material supplier too late, testing, inspections, scheduling activities during the same time when they will be in each others way, not having enough equipment on the jobsite. Things that can be avoided by the exercise of care, prudence, foresight and diligence on the part of the contractor.

Front 8

What is retainage?

Back 8

The amount of money an owner will keep from paying the contractor until the entire project is complete and all punch lists have been done, usually 10% of the total cost.

Front 9

Examples of Avoidable Delays?

Back 9

Normally anticipated weather, calling a material supplier too late, testing, inspections, scheduling activities during the same time when they will be in each others way, not having enough equipment on the jobsite. Things that can be avoided by the exercise of care, prudence, foresight and diligence on the part of the contractor.

Front 10

What is retainage?

Back 10

The amount of money an owner will keep from paying the contractor until the entire project is complete and all punch lists have been done, usually 10% of the total cost.

Front 11

What are submittals and why must they be consider in a project schedule.

Back 11

They constitute a major component of the procurement of materials and equipment for the project. They will be reviewed by the owner, who may tell the contractor to make corrections, amend and resubmit or that the document has been rejected.

Front 12

What is planning?

Back 12

Determining what is going to be done, how, where and by whom? Involves identifying and describing all the tasks that must be performed, along with the sequencing and relationships among the tasks.

Front 13

What is scheduling?

Back 13

Determining when specific tasks are to be performed. Consists of determining the time needed for each of the planned tasks and the overall length of the project schedule.

Front 14

What is CPM?

Back 14

Critical Path Method, includes the evaliation of the time distribution of resources and costs. This associated each activity with the amount of resources (labor, equipment and materials) it requires and its associated costs.

Front 15

What is PERT?

Back 15

Program evaluation review technique. Created by the Navy. Considers the problem of uncertainty. Includes an optimistic time, pessimistic time and the most likely time.

Front 16

What is the difference between PERT and CPM??

Back 16

CPM is deterministic while PERT is probabilistic.

Front 17

Examples of types of constraints that might have an adverse impact on a scheduling network.

Back 17

Physical; forms placed before concrete poured, placing a transformer before a pad is poured. Resource; the availability of one crane for two independent activities. Safety; temporary lighting inside before some activities can be performed, some activities can not happen at the same time, hot or cold days. Financial; staggering high cost activities to minimize cash requirements. Environmental; not working in certain areas during spawning season, fish runs or eagle nesting. Management; requirements of supervisory time, consequences of tax strategy decisions, cash flow needs, or the demands of other projects. Contractoral; owner may impose constraints, owner requires the work in one physical location to be completed before another area can begin, true of road and airfield projects, phasing in building projects. Productivity; paving a length of road crossing the road then going back. Regulatory; land use restrictions, other regulations enacted at municipal, county, state, and federal levels

Front 18

Describe potential users of a construction schedule.

Back 18

Contractors, who need a time table of when activities will need to start and finish, what precedes an activity, and what follows an activity. Owners, so they know what is going on at their jobsites and when they can expect certain activities to be completed.

Front 19

What is a work breakdown schedule?

Back 19

A systematic way to describe the components of a project schedule.

Front 20

Steps in building a network model.

Back 20

Define activities, order activities, establish activity relationships, draw a network diagram, determine quantities, assign durations to activities, assign resources and cost, calculate early and late start/finish times, schedule activity start/finish times.

Front 21

Examples of impacts on schedule.

Back 21

weather, contractor availability, material availability, equipment, government, communication, safety, owners, change orders, tradition, loyalty, experience and site conditions

Front 22

What does the notice to proceed entail?

Back 22

Marks the beginning of the actual construction duration. contractor may not be paid for work preformed prior to notice. Often requires submittal of executed contact, bonds, evidence of insurance.

Front 23

What does the time of completion entail?

Back 23

Stipulates the number of days permitted for project completion, count begins on date specified in notice to proceed or given number of days after receipt of notice to proceed.

Front 24

What is the difference between working days and calendar days.

Back 24

Working days are typically used for civil projects; building dams, roads, bridges. Calendar days are typically used for architectural projects, can also account for things that happen when no one is working; curing of concrete.

Front 25

What happens with liquidated damages?

Back 25

Contractor will pay the owner $/day, also responsible for actual damages incurred by the owner.

Front 26

What is meant by use of completed portions?

Back 26

Owner may wish to have access to completed portions of the project, taking possession does not necessarily mean that the work is accepted?

Front 27

What does substantial completion mean?

Back 27

Project is considered substantially complete when it reaches the point that the owner can begin to occupy and utilize the property.

Front 28

Typical schedule relationships?

Back 28

start to start, finish to finish, start to finish, finish to start.

Front 29

The amount of time that an activity can be delayed before it impacts the start of any succeeding activity.

Back 29

Free Float

Front 30

The amount of time that an activity can be delayed before it impacts the completion date of the project.

Back 30

Total Float

Front 31

What are the two types of estimates?

Back 31

Conceptual estimates and Detailed Estimates

Front 32

What is a conceptual estimate?

Back 32

Generally used by the prospective owner of a project to determine the approximate cost of a project before making a final decision to construct it.

Front 33

What is a detailed estimate?

Back 33

Prepared by contractors prior to submitting bids on competitively bid contracts or when entering lump-sum or fixed based contracts. Usually includes costs of materials, labor, equipment, subcontracted work, overhead and profit

Front 34

Factors that influence choice of activity schedules?

Back 34

Two activities requiring the same piece of equipment, materials delivery and storage, balancing uncertainties.

Front 35

What is the difference between resource allocation and resource leveling?

Back 35

Resource allocation, concerns the allocation of resources that are limited, while leveling, concerns the efficient use of the required resources when the project duration cannot be altered.

Front 36

What is the difference between parallel and series method?

Back 36

In series once a activity has begun it cannot be stopped, while parallel is more of assigning projects day to day.

Front 37

What is the difference between activity and event?

Back 37

Activities consume time while events do not. Events are merely a completion or status at a certain point in the schedule.

Front 38

Describe 2 network schedules that might be generated for the same project. Why?

Back 38

Precedence diagram and arrow diagram. Arrow diagrams have not been used since the 60's, while precedence diagrams depicts activities as nodes with logic link lines that depict the dependencies that exsist between the activities

Front 39

Give an example of a procurement activity that might be a valuable inclusion in a network.

Back 39

Obtaining special order, long, or uncertain lead time items.

Front 40

Give an example of a procurement activity that has little merit for inclusion in a network.

Back 40

Acquiring readily available items.

Front 41

Why should the initial schedule be viewed as a best guess of how a project will be constructed rather than a definitive statement about how it will be done and when it will be completed?

Back 41

Because contractors do not know how long each activity will take on that job at that time, also they may have delays for many reasons

Front 42

Describe factors that might impact the level of detail used in a schedule.

Back 42

The scale of the project, its duration, number of activities, complexity, activity durations.

Front 43

Factors that come into play when estimating activity durations?

Back 43

The method used to establish the duration of an activity will depend on the size, in terms of time consumption, of the activity and the amount of accuracy that is required.

Front 44

Factors influencing choice of activity schedules?

Back 44

the sequencing of activities depends primarily on physical constraints while other constraints (resource, environmental, safety) are simply noted and introduced later.

Front 45

What defines the start date of a project?

Back 45

The notice to proceed

Front 46

What defines the finish date of a project?

Back 46

The contract duration is typically stated in terms of the total number of working days or calendar days alloted for completion until substantial completion.

Front 47

What presents the greatest potential for conflict, working or calendar days?

Back 47

Working days, because when dealing with materials and curing their calendar length will have to be converted to actual working days. Also messed up when a contractor wants to work overtime on weekends to catch up but the owner still counts these as workdays.

Front 48

What are the primary grounds on which the contractor can terminate the contract?

Back 48

If work is stopped at the site for a long period of time at no fault of the contractor.

Front 49

When can an owner suspend a project.

Back 49

When the site is considered to be unsatisfactory for the prosecution of the work, if the weather or season affects the contractor's ability to build a quality product.