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SAME Industry-Government Engagement Summit

Construction: A Contact Sport - How Industry and Government Can Improve Project Delivery - 4 PDH

Wednesday, March 29, 2023
12:30 - 5:00 p.m. EDT
Salon A-C | Bethesda North Marriott

SAME Member: $30 - Government / $130 - Industry (lunch included)

Non-Member: $41 - Government/ $161 - Industry (lunch included)

Already registered for Capital Week? Email registration@same.org to request that the IGE Summit be added to your registration.

This session is full. You can be placed on a wait list by adding the session to your registration.

The inability to consistently deliver federal construction projects on schedule, budget, and with the highest quality is a growing national security threat for our nation. Marketplace challenges, including a shortage of skilled labor, escalating material and equipment costs, and extended delays in the supply chain are all exacerbating this problem.  

Collectively we face the combined impact of these countering forces at the same time that the United States looks to embark on one of the largest infrastructure modernization programs in our nation’s history, both public and defense. 
  • From a public view, buildings, roads, bridges, civil works, and utilities systems across the country are deteriorated, unreliable, and unsafe. 
  • From a National Defense perspective, growing global geo-political instability and imperial aggression by potential rival nations makes it essential that the United States maintains unparalleled military readiness and capability.  
Government and industry have long recognized the importance of partnering and collaborative engagement to achieve domestic and national security goals. Far too often, however, we see projects delivered late, over-budget, and with systemic quality issues. Why does this continue to happen, and who is at fault? At-large, we all are. We must share the blame, and only together can we develop long term solutions. 
  • In the Federal arena, risk-averse procurement policies combined with a shrinking acquisition and project management workforce contribute to a contract enforcement model that shifts maximum risk to A/Es and Constructors.
  • Responsible Constructors are driven to “pad” their bids and delivery schedules, elect not to bid, and worse yet, leave the federal contracting space altogether.
If our Nation is to succeed in restoring vital domestic and national defense infrastructure, overcoming the daunting challenges in the marketplace, it is absolutely essential that government and industry join forces now to create and implement new and innovative approaches to joint-risk-based project delivery, which must inevitably be founded upon fairness and trust.

Successful construction projects are a contact sport – lots of communication, pushing and shoving between the Owner and the Designer and Construction teams, working collaboratively and transparently to deliver projects that balance risk and benefit the client AND the contractor equally. 
  • How can these teams work more effectively to not just complete projects, but consistently excel in project delivery?  
  • What are examples of excellent project delivery?  
  • What are the benefits to Owners, Designers, and Constructors – lower cost, earlier delivery, higher quality, improved safety, and ultimately impacting national security.

SAME’s Construction Task Force

The Task Force will be hosting an IGE Summit to gather Owner, Design, and Construction decision-makers and thought leaders from Government and Industry to examine three timely topics affecting project delivery today. The topics for consideration are:

The Shrinking Federal Contractor Base: How can we reverse the trend and commit to the necessary investments and changes in procurement policies needed to incentivize and retain the best A/Es and GCs? Moderator: Mario Burgos, President & CEO, Burgos Group, LLC

Got Risk: How to improve current project delivery methods?: Can solving inequitable risk-sharing practices across the owner/contractor landscape increase the speed of trust within federal project delivery? Moderator: Ben Nichols, President, Harkins Builders, Inc.

Can we afford the consequences of not making changes?: Can the United States continue to absorb the readiness and capability impacts of late, costly projects ultimately affecting our national defense and economic objectives? Moderator: Rear Adm. John Korka, USN (Ret.), Division President, Clark Construction Group

This session will include an in-briefing outlining each topic, collaborative discussions examining each topic, and a final gathering to out brief each panel’s findings and recommendations.

Schedule

Time

Description

12:30 - 1:15

Lunch

1:15 - 1:45

Welcome and Topic Introduction

1:45 - 2:00

Networking Break

2:00 - 4:15

Collaborative discussion of topics (separate breakouts)

4:15 - 4:30

Networking Break

4:30 - 5:00

Topic Out-Briefs and Recommendations