The Client and Its Challenge
Like all public schools, this client’s mission is to “guarantee a quality education for every student, every day.” Unfortunately, after years of declining funding, poor facility management, and aging infrastructure, a Midwest school district was not meeting its mission—and needed to change quickly before it faced disciplinary action by both the state and federal governments.

The district planned to build nine new schools over two years to improve the state of its facilities. Its initial interaction with Marsh was to determine whether it made sense to install an Owner Controlled Insurance Program—where the owner of the construction project purchased the necessary insurance to cover all contractors and sub-contractors. Although this was not feasible, Marsh identified several potential risk areas that would not be insurable.

The Risk Consulting Solution
Marsh Risk Consulting proposed conducting a Project Risk Needs Analysis (PRNA). Developed in conjunction with the Marsh Construction Industry Practice, the PRNA asks 300 project-specific questions that results in a comprehensive risk map identifying the top 15 risks for this construction project. The focus of this process was on safety and security—two of the main issues facing the school district. Additionally, Marsh collected data on change-order performance, paper work status, and “general jobsite housekeeping,” a key ingredient in running a safe jobsite.

Over the next two years of the project, Marsh consultants will use TrendTracker® to collect and analyze the relevant data from each of the construction sites. They will present a monthly summary to the school district with a full report every two months.

Results
The resulting data will allow the school district to monitor potentially serious risk areas during the construction phase. It will receive information highlighting breakdowns in procedures, areas of concern, information relating to change order lag, and other areas that may negatively affect both the construction timeline and the cost of the project.

The school district will use information gained during the building of the initial schools as it develops the request for proposals (RFP) for future building projects. The information will also be used to assess the work done by the contractors and sub-contractors and will be used as it awards future construction contracts.