Airport Extension Project

2 Pages 425 Words

The airport runway extension took place on a large international airport that was in need of a mile long runway to accommodate the newer bigger jumbo jets to be produced in the near future. In order to fulfill this requirement, their largest runway needed to be extended 1000 feet. However, the budget and time restraints required that the project begin on February 1, 1999, be finished in 18 months, and cost less that 8 million dollars.
This airport had one major problem. The longest runway could only be extended over a large ravine that housed a four lane interstate highway and three sets of operating railroad tracks. This dilemma greatly increased the time and cost of the project; however, with the use of detailed scheduling and estimating, the project was made to easily fall within the time and cost requirements. BJG&C Construction Management began the planing by estimating the three major parts of the project: highway tunnel, railroad tunnel and runway extension. Using the 1996 Means estimating manual, labor costs, material costs and time estimates could be accurately calculated for each of the 61 tasks to be completed. After all of the estimates were completed the actual scheduling began. The sections of the project that could be accomplished concurrently were figured out and also a logical order of tasks was completed to achieve the shortest possible path to completion. Everything went smoothly, and the project was passed through the required committees. Construction began as scheduled on February 1, 1999.
Construction began on both the railroad and the highway tunnel, and everything went smoothly until the lid construction began. The beams that were involved in the lid construction were ordered at the start of the project and were to be delivered within 12 weeks. However, due to complications at the supplier, the delivery date was pushed back a full 13 weeks which immediately pushed this task onto the critical path. Furthermore...