Lawyer Monthly Magazine - October 2019 Edition

What are the various stages duringwhichconstructioncan go wrong? I have seen problems crop up in many ways during both design and construction. Schedule compression to reduce lending costs and bring revenue generation on-line faster has resulted in significant and ongoing changes to the way buildings are constructed. Shortened design time, reduced design fees, and increasingly specialized componentry have been partially offset through common adoption of delegated design. This process allows construction to start before the building design is complete, with portions of the design, including structural and building enclosure systems, being completed by contractors rather than the primary A/E team. Completion As Kurt Hoigard explains below, you rarely see construction claims hitting the news, unless something catastrophic has happened which has led to unfortunate deaths. Nonetheless, when construction goes wrong, it can have dire impacts, and often an Expert Witness is needed to determine what exactly went wrong so justice can prevail. Below, Kurt explains the various ways that construction goes wrong and how he assists in such cases. of the building design can go seriously wrong if the A/E and construction teams don’t understand their respective responsibilities. For the delegated design process to work as intended by the International Building Code, the primary A/E team first needs to clearly define the functional and performance requirements of the delegated elements. The construction team then needs to retain qualified design professions to develop the delegated designs, followed by the A/E team reviewing the results for conformance with the specified requirements and keeping the local building code officials informed. Problems in any of these three phases can lead to questionable results. Additional common problem areas I often see are material selection and implementation. Approaching Construction Cases as an Expert Witness About Kurt Hoigard, P.E., SECB, F.ASTM “As President of Raths, Raths & Johnson, Inc. (RRJ), my time is split between managing the firm and actively working on projects. I was hired by the firm’s founders as I was finishing my Master’s degree in structural engineering and learned everything I could from them. I ran load tests in our laboratory, performed complex structural calculations, investigated failing building facades and structures, and ultimately advanced to become a firm leader and co- owner of our nationally recognized engineering, architecture, and forensics consulting practice.” “Having logged34 years of experienceandobtainedProfessional Engineer licenses in more than 30 jurisdictions, my project work currently involves structural and building enclosure consulting, peer review, failure investigation, repair design, andexpertwitness testimony for projects ranging from multifamily construction to NFL stadiums. I like to tell people that my practice is like CSI for the portions of buildings that hold them up and/or keep the weather out. My litigation activities involve the forensic aspects of determining what is actually wrong with troubled buildings, how they got that way, and which parties are responsible for the expressedmalperformance issues. Written reports, presentations, and testimony at depositions and mediation, arbitration, and court proceedings are common follow-on activities. Clients for these services have included insurance companies and attorneys representing building owners, developers, general contractors, specialty subcontractors, material suppliers, and manufacturers, as well as architects, engineers, and local, State, and Federal government agencies.” “Thought leadership has always been very important to me and has been at the forefront of building my career as a forensic engineer. My interest in material performance research started in graduate school and has continued to this day through our in-house testing laboratory, allowing me hands-on opportunities to learn how structural and building enclosure materials and assemblies actually perform. I have shared my accumulated knowledge with the engineering, architecture, and construction worlds through more than 30 years of standards development with ASTM International, publishing nearly 50 articles, serving as the chairman of two ASTM symposia, and making numerous presentations to construction industry organizations. Venues for my publications and presentations have included the American Concrete Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Institute of Steel Construction, ASTM International, Construction Specifications Institute, American Institute of Architects, and the American Bar Association. My thought leadership activities have been recognized nationally through elevation to Fellow of ASTM International and being named in multiple editions of Who’s Who Legal: Construction as among the world’s leading expert witnesses.” Expert Witness By Kurt Hoigard, P.E., SECB, F.ASTM, Raths, Raths & Johnson, Inc. 64 WWW.LAWYER-MONTHLY.COM | OCT 2019 Building Structure& Enclosure