Zero Float on the Steel Mill Order
A $22M, 14-month fire station replacement must reach substantial completion before the owner's temporary lease expires on October 15; after that the owner pays $4,000 per day to remain in leased space. Steel erection is scheduled to start August 4. The mill needs 12 weeks from order release, so the mill order must be placed by May 12. Today is April 7. The structural engineer reports the stamped package is 60 percent complete and needs five more weeks - landing exactly on May 12 with zero float. The contractor has not yet submitted its steel shop-drawing schedule and has asked whether the architect will accept a partial package limited to column lines, braced frames, and the two elevated slabs so the mill order can be released. The owner's representative wants a written recovery plan by Friday. The contractor's project manager has twice mentioned "delay damages" in meeting minutes.
1. Quantify the float and identify the decisions that must be made in the next two weeks.
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Float. The mill-order release date is a hard constraint: August 4 erection minus 12 weeks = May 12. Five weeks of engineering starting April 7 lands on May 12 exactly. Total float on that path is zero, and because it is the driving constraint it is the critical path regardless of what the contractor's current CPM shows. One week of slip costs one week of steel erection; each week of owner lease holdover is 7 × $4,000 = $28,000, before the contractor's extended general conditions and lost productivity are added.
Decisions due now.
- Buy out mill time, not finished drawings. Confirm with the fabricator whether the mill will accept an order from a partial release package. Mills need member size, grade, length, and quantity - not connection design.
- Accept a phased structural package limited to procurement information: framing plans, member sizes, column base reactions, and slab elevations, sealed and dated as an "early steel procurement package," with connections and embeds issued later by addendum.
- Price the alternatives side by side. Engineer overtime to reach 90 percent in three weeks typically costs $15,000–$25,000 in additional fees against $28,000 per week of owner exposure. The overtime is almost always the cheaper answer.
- Get written owner direction before committing, because accelerating design is an additional service and a fee item.
2. How should the firm document and respond to the contractor's talk of delay damages?
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Establish the baseline first. The question is not "were the drawings late?" but "late relative to what the contract schedule required." Pull the contractor's approved baseline schedule and its submittal register. If the schedule showed steel shop drawings going to the fabricator in June, the mill order was never going to be placed in May, and the drawings are not the cause of the delay.
Document in parallel. (1) Confirm the engineer's percent-complete dates in writing each week, naming the sheets still outstanding. (2) Issue the partial package under a numbered document with a clear scope limitation so it can never be characterized later as a complete set. (3) Log every directive, every statement made in meetings, and every cost the owner authorizes. (4) Ask the contractor in writing for a CPM time-impact fragment and a cost breakdown - a bare assertion in minutes is not a claim.
Respond, don't argue. Acknowledge the schedule concern, request the schedule update within seven days, and restate that the owner has not directed acceleration. If acceleration is later directed, it is a change order with a stated cost and a stated time benefit; if it is not directed, the contractor owns means and methods.
Also look inward. If the structural package genuinely is the driving cause, the owner's remedy may run against the architect. Notify the firm's professional liability carrier early and preserve the engineer's time records and transmittals.