Construction management practice in the execution of military construction projects

This work documents the efforts to gain wide understanding of the construction industry and its interaction with the federal government through active participation and analysis of the major phases of the construction process as an intern with a construction company. To experience procurement, pre-construction planning, and construction efforts, an internship was developed with a leading construction company offering design and construction services. The internship was conducted within the company's Federal Contracting Group office and at two separate field locations. During assignments as an estimator, project engineer, assistant superintendent, quality manager, and project manager, tasks were conducted to support eight internship objectives. These internship objectives focused on achieving practical knowledge of how a construction company operates to provide customer services in the areas of quality, budget, and schedule. The internship was geared toward military construction efforts and procurement methods. Through the course of conducting bid estimates, an understanding was obtained on how a construction company identifies, measures, and assesses risk, and how scopes of work are coordinated into a cost estimate. Checklists were expanded and risk simulation methods investigated to minimize risks with the bid estimating process. Construction management abilities were enhanced with exposure to field production, subcontractor management, material handling, and field documentation. The importance of safety in construction operations has gained increased attention and was a focus of the internship. Both owners and general contractors understood the importance of safe operations to the success of a construction project. While actively participating in quality control operations, a review was conducted of a general contractor's quality management operations. Existing templates, processes, and checklists were employed to conduct pre-construction planning and quality control responsibilities involved with concreting operations at the two field locations. Aspects of total quality management were evident in the execution of each project. Responsibilities through the course of this internship have led to improving project manager competencies. An opportunity also existed to investigate and analyze the military design-build proposal process. Concerns and initiatives with preparing proposals in response to design-build solicitations were identified and suggested approaches for contractors were developed.