If you like the teamwork approach to a construction project, Construction Management (CM) is another option.

CM offers clients the opportunity to hire Heartland Construction as the owner’s agent to oversee every aspect of a construction project from start to finish. Heartland is one of only 24 construction companies in Idaho that is licensed as a construction management company.

The teamwork approach to CM makes it very similar to Design-Build as a construction delivery service, but the key difference is that CM involves an extra player –the owner’s agent – to oversee the entire project. In Design-Build, the project owner takes on that responsibility.

The primary benefit of taking the CM approach is that an experienced construction manager like Heartland has the knowledge, expertise and systems in place to ensure that the project stays on schedule, on budget and yields high-quality results. CM has been growing in popularity since its inception in the United States in early 1960s.

At the beginning of a project, CM involves putting together a construction team consisting of the owner, the construction manager, the general contractor (who can be the CM as well) and the architect-engineer. Members of the team work together from concept to completion with a common objective of serving the owner’s best interests. The team can work as an efficient unit, integrating aspects of project planning, design and construction as the project proceeds to provide maximum value for the project owner within the most economic time frame.

During planning discussions, team members advise the project owner about the cost consequences of design, construction decisions, scheduling, cost control, coordination of contract negotiation and awards, timely purchasing of critical material and long-lead items, and coordination of actual construction activities.

The CM approach calls for written plans for every aspect of the project, including project management, cost management, time management, contract administration, safety administration and quality administration.

In CM jobs, the Construction Manager may or may not serve as the general contractor. The CM may negotiate with subcontractors as opposed to shopping for the lowest bid. Part of the benefit of CM is to remove an inherently adversarial relationship between the architect/engineer and the general contractor. Instead, the two entities work together with the owner’s best interests in mind.