When they are building something, what happens when they are behind the schedule?

Question

I was watching documentaries and in one of them they said a fine is 100.000$ if they stop with work for one day cause of strong winds. they were building a skyscraper. now I'm watching how they are building some dams to protect the venice and they mentioned that they need to stay on schedule. why? the work is already dangerous, why are they forcing them to work so fast?

Answer 1

When a project is not completed as scheduled, the owner is suffering liquidated damages.  If the owner intends to rent out floor space in a building, and is delayed from doing so, the owner is being kept from generating revenue.  If it is a public works project, there is additional cost to the public in the form of still having to use an older less efficient facility.

When an owner puts out a project to bid, there is usually a number days specified to complete the work.  The contractor bids the job knowing what schedule he must meet.

Answer 2

It's business, and in business, money is more important than safety.  Many construction contracts include a completion date, with wording that awards the customer refunds on the contract fees if the contractor is late completing the job.

A skilled estimator builds in extra time and a certain amount of anticipated repayment to accommodate unexpected delays caused by weather, equipment failure, and natural disaster.  But s/he can't build in too much extra time, or someone will underbid her and get the contract.

The contractor makes an effort to pass on the risk to subcontractors.  For example, the electrical contractor is also under a contract that requires it to pay back some of the money if the wiring is not done on time.  And so on.

If the job is running late, the managers who are responsible for making a profit get very excited.  Workers may be fired or reassigned.  Extra crews and equipment may be brought in to try to make up lost time.  The workers don't want to lose their jobs, so they work extra time and take extra risks, sometimes.

It can be very stressful to be in that business, but it sure beats sitting around collecting unemployment checks and watching COPS TV.

Note: not all of the answers above are very good ones.  In fact one of them was just gibberish.  Don't pay them too much attention.

Answer 3

Because of the computers,motors,motor relays and everything else in there might not work properly due to the amount of downtime......Because after so long the computers reset thereselves and therefore having to be reprogrammed and that is more downtime....Plus,it can cause motors to delay and then they have to replace an very expensive motor that cost thousands of dollars......Plus, damns also run electricity all through the state .........Take Ohatchee d**n in Ohatchee,Alabama for example......It supplies power all the way across Georgia into North Carolina even by the use of transformers,capacitors,and very huge fuses.....so they try to make sure everything is down as little as possible because people all around would be complaining about having no electricity so therefore they keep all maintence done as it is needed and to approach the problem as quick as possible before it affects anything......

Answer 4

because when the company building whatever it is they're building "bid" on the project, they submitted a timeline that they would have it done in. this is one of the criteria that whoever wants the dam or whatever it is to be built uses to decide what company will get to build the project, so if they're not able to get it done in the time they said they would, they have to compensate for the lost time.