Fast-Track and Phased Construction

1. Why This Topic Matters for the CCM Exam
Fast-track and phased construction sit at the heart of the CMAA Certified Construction Manager (CCM) exam domain of Program and Project Management. The CCM exam tests whether you can advise an owner on how to structure and deliver a project, and schedule compression strategies are one of the most consequential decisions a Construction Manager (CM) helps an owner make. Fast-tracking touches nearly every other exam domain: it changes how contracts are packaged (Contract Administration), how cost is controlled and when a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) can be established (Cost Management), how the schedule is built and tracked (Time Management), how design review and constructability must be sequenced (Quality Management), and how risk is identified and allocated (Risk Management). Expect questions that ask you to recognize when fast-tracking is appropriate, what risks it creates, what the CM must do to control those risks, and which delivery method best supports it. The CMAA Standards of Practice (SOP) and the Capstone textbook both treat the CM as the owner's advisor who must explain the trade-off between speed and certainty.

2. What Fast-Track Construction Is
Fast-tracking is a schedule compression technique in which construction begins before the design is fully complete. Instead of the traditional linear sequence (program, design, bid, build), design and construction overlap. Early construction activities such as demolition, site clearing, utilities, excavation, foundations, and structural steel proceed while architects and engineers are still completing drawings for mechanical, electrical, interiors, and finishes.

Key characteristics:
- Design is released in sequential bid packages (also called work packages or trade packages) rather than one complete set of 100 percent construction documents.
- The overall project duration is shortened because activities that would normally be sequential are performed concurrently.
- The owner trades cost and scope certainty for time savings. Because the full design does not exist at the start of construction, the final cost cannot be fixed with the same confidence as in design-bid-build.
- Fast-tracking is inherently incompatible with a single lump-sum general contract based on complete drawings. It requires a delivery method that permits contracting on partial information: CM at-Risk (CMAR), Agency CM with multiple prime contracts, or Design-Build.

3. What Phased Construction Is
Phased construction means dividing a project or program into distinct, separately contracted or separately scheduled phases, each with its own scope, schedule, and often its own contract or bid package. Phasing may be driven by:
- Funding availability (the owner can only appropriate money in increments, common in public work).
- Operational continuity (a hospital, school, or airport must stay open; work is sequenced so occupied areas are vacated, renovated, and reoccupied in turn).
- Site logistics (limited laydown area or access requires building in sections).
- Design readiness (portions of the design are complete earlier than others).
- Early occupancy or revenue (the owner wants to use Building A before Building B is finished).

Fast-track versus phased: The two terms are related and frequently combined but are not identical. Phasing is about dividing the work into parts; the parts may run sequentially with no overlap of design and construction at all. Fast-tracking specifically means overlapping design with construction to save time. A fast-tracked project is almost always phased (into bid packages), but a phased project is not necessarily fast-tracked. On the exam, if a question emphasizes time compression and overlapping design with construction, the answer is fast-tracking. If it emphasizes maintaining operations, funding increments, or sequential occupancy, the answer is phasing.

4. How Fast-Track and Phased Construction Work in Practice

4.1 Delivery Method Selection
The CM's first duty is to help the owner choose a delivery method that can accommodate fast-tracking. The CMAA framework recognizes:
- Agency CM with Multiple Prime Contracts: The owner holds separate contracts with each trade contractor; the CM (as the owner's agent) coordinates them. This is the classic fast-track structure. The owner retains the risk of coordination gaps between primes, which the CM manages.
- CM at-Risk: The CM holds the trade contracts and provides a GMP, usually when design is 50 to 90 percent complete. Early packages can be bought out before the GMP is finalized, often under an early-work amendment or letter of intent.
- Design-Build: A single entity controls both design and construction, making overlap natural.
- Design-Bid-Build is not suited to fast-tracking because the single prime contract requires complete documents for competitive lump-sum bidding.

4.2 Bid Package Strategy
The CM, working with the designer, develops a bid package plan (sometimes called a procurement or contract packaging plan). Typical sequence:
1. Demolition, site preparation, and utilities.
2. Foundations, piles, and below-grade work.
3. Structural frame (steel or concrete).
4. Long-lead procurement packages (elevators, switchgear, chillers, air handlers, curtain wall) issued early so fabrication proceeds during design.
5. Building envelope.
6. Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection.
7. Interiors, finishes, and specialties.
8. Site finishing and landscaping.

Each package requires its own set of complete drawings and specifications, its own estimate, its own schedule window, and a clear scope definition so that nothing falls between packages and nothing is duplicated. The CM maintains a scope matrix or responsibility matrix for this purpose.

4.3 Design Management
Fast-tracking inverts normal design logic. The designer must finalize foundation and structural decisions before architectural and MEP design are complete. This creates the principal technical risk: later design decisions may require changes to work already built. The CM mitigates this by:
- Establishing design freeze dates or decision milestones for each package.
- Requiring the designer to produce criteria and loads early (structural loads, floor-to-floor heights, shaft locations, riser sizes) so early packages accommodate later systems.
- Conducting constructability reviews and interface reviews at each package release.
- Managing a formal design change control process so late changes are evaluated for impact on completed work.
- Integrating the design schedule into the master schedule so design deliverables are tracked as predecessors to procurement and construction activities.

4.4 Scheduling
The master schedule for a fast-track project is a true integrated schedule showing design, procurement, and construction. Important elements include:
- Milestones for each package: design complete, bid, award, mobilize, substantial completion.
- Procurement lead times explicitly scheduled.
- Identification of the critical path, which on fast-track projects frequently runs through design and procurement rather than through field work.
- Float management and early-warning indicators because the compressed schedule has little tolerance for slippage.
- For phased projects, phase turnover and occupancy milestones and swing space logistics.

4.5 Cost Management
Because the design is incomplete when construction starts, the CM must manage cost under uncertainty:
- Prepare phased estimates and update the overall budget as each package is bought out, tracking committed cost versus estimated cost to complete.
- Carry appropriate design contingency (for scope that will emerge as design is completed) in addition to construction contingency (for unknowns during execution).
- Use allowances for items not yet designed.
- Time the GMP carefully in CMAR; setting it too early forces the CM to price undefined scope with large contingencies, while setting it too late defeats the owner's need for cost certainty.
- Monitor buyout savings and the cumulative effect of package pricing against the control budget.

4.6 Contract Administration and Coordination
Multiple contracts mean multiple interfaces. The CM must:
- Write clear scope of work and coordination clauses in each contract.
- Define which contractor provides general conditions items (hoisting, temporary power, site security, cleanup) or provide them through a general conditions package.
- Administer submittals, RFIs, and changes across many contractors simultaneously.
- Hold regular coordination meetings and manage site logistics plans.
- Manage partial substantial completion and phased turnover, including separate punch lists, warranties, and occupancy permits for each phase.

4.7 Risk Management
The primary risks the exam expects you to know:
- Design changes affecting installed work (rework, change orders).
- Scope gaps and overlaps between bid packages.
- Cost uncertainty at the time of commitment.
- Coordination and trade stacking because more work occurs simultaneously.
- Quality risk from compressed review time.
- Claims exposure from delays in design releases impacting contractors already mobilized.
- For phased projects: disruption to owner operations, interface between occupied and construction areas, and safety of the public and occupants.

Mitigation tools include contingency, clear scope matrices, design milestones, early procurement of long-lead items, robust document control, and selecting an experienced CM with authority to coordinate.

5. Advantages and Disadvantages Summary
Advantages: shorter overall duration; earlier occupancy or revenue; reduced exposure to escalation on early packages; early identification of market pricing; ability to order long-lead equipment early; flexibility to incorporate owner decisions during construction; accommodates incremental funding (phasing); keeps facilities operational (phasing).

Disadvantages: loss of cost certainty at start; higher potential for change orders and rework; greater coordination burden; more contracts to administer; possible higher total cost if changes are significant; reduced competition if packages are small; increased reliance on the CM's competence; design team under pressure, possibly affecting quality.

6. The CM's Role Under CMAA Standards of Practice
The SOP positions the CM as the integrator. On a fast-track or phased project, the CM is expected to: advise the owner on whether fast-tracking is appropriate for the owner's priorities; recommend the delivery method and contract structure; develop the bid package and procurement plan; develop and maintain the integrated master schedule; establish the cost management plan with appropriate contingencies; coordinate design release with construction need dates; administer multiple contracts and manage interfaces; run the risk management program; and manage phased commissioning, turnover, and closeout. The CM does not design and, in agency CM, does not self-perform; the CM manages the process.

7. Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Fast-Track and Phased Construction

Tip 1: Identify the owner's priority. Many questions describe an owner's situation and ask for the best recommendation. If the scenario stresses time (lease expiration, academic calendar, market window, revenue), fast-tracking is likely correct. If it stresses cost certainty or a fixed budget with no flexibility, fast-tracking is likely the wrong recommendation and design-bid-build or a later GMP is better. If it stresses keeping a facility operational or incremental funding, phasing is the answer.

Tip 2: Know the fundamental trade-off. The single most tested concept is that fast-tracking exchanges cost and scope certainty for time. Any answer choice that claims fast-tracking reduces cost risk, guarantees lower total cost, or simplifies coordination is a distractor.

Tip 3: Match the delivery method. Remember: design-bid-build with a single lump-sum prime is incompatible with fast-tracking. CM at-Risk, agency CM with multiple primes, and design-build are compatible. If asked which delivery method the CM should recommend for a fast-track project, eliminate design-bid-build immediately.

Tip 4: Think in terms of the CM's first or best action. CMAA questions often ask what the CM should do first. The usual pattern is: analyze and advise the owner before acting; develop a plan (bid package plan, procurement plan, schedule) before executing; coordinate with the designer rather than directing design. Answers in which the CM unilaterally changes the design, assumes designer liability, or bypasses the owner are wrong.

Tip 5: Recognize the primary risk. If asked the greatest risk of fast-tracking, the expected answer concerns design changes impacting work already in place or cost uncertainty because design is incomplete. If asked the greatest risk of phasing an occupied facility, the expected answer concerns disruption to owner operations and safety of occupants.

Tip 6: Know the control tools. Be ready to pick the correct mitigation: scope matrix for gaps and overlaps; design contingency for undefined scope; design freeze milestones for late changes; early procurement for long-lead items; integrated master schedule for design-construction coordination; interface management for multiple primes.

Tip 7: Distinguish related terms. Fast-tracking (overlap design and construction) is different from crashing (adding resources to shorten critical activities) and from phasing (dividing into parts). Multiple prime contracting is a contracting structure, not a schedule technique, although it enables fast-tracking. Watch for questions that test these distinctions.

Tip 8: Understand GMP timing. In CMAR fast-track scenarios, questions may ask when the GMP should be set. The balanced answer is when design is sufficiently defined to price with reasonable contingency, typically design development to early construction documents, not at schematic design and not after all packages are bought out.

Tip 9: Watch for absolute language. Choices containing words like always, never, eliminates, or guarantees are rarely correct in this topic because fast-tracking is a trade-off, not a cure.

Tip 10: Apply the CMAA mindset. The correct answer usually reflects the CM acting as the owner's professional advisor and integrator: communicate, document, plan, coordinate, and manage risk. Answers that shift risk improperly, reduce documentation, or skip owner approval are distractors.

8. Practice Questions

Question 1. An owner must occupy a new laboratory within 20 months to meet a research grant deadline. Design has just begun. The CM should recommend: (A) design-bid-build with liquidated damages; (B) a fast-track approach using CM at-Risk with sequential bid packages; (C) delaying the start until 100 percent documents are ready; (D) value engineering to reduce scope.
Answer: B. Time is the driver; CMAR with sequential packages overlaps design and construction. A is incompatible with fast-tracking; C ignores the deadline; D does not address duration.

Question 2. The most significant disadvantage of fast-track construction is: (A) reduced ability to use long-lead procurement; (B) loss of cost certainty and potential for changes to installed work; (C) elimination of the need for a construction manager; (D) longer overall duration.
Answer: B. The core trade-off is time gained for certainty lost.

Question 3. On a multiple prime fast-track project, the CM discovers that neither the structural steel contract nor the miscellaneous metals contract includes the roof screen supports. This is best described as: (A) a design error; (B) a scope gap resulting from bid packaging; (C) a differing site condition; (D) a constructive change.
Answer: B. Gaps between packages are a classic fast-track risk, mitigated by a scope matrix.

Question 4. A hospital wants to renovate its emergency department without closing it. The CM's recommended approach is: (A) fast-track all work simultaneously; (B) phased construction with swing space and defined turnover milestones; (C) a single lump-sum contract; (D) postpone until a new facility is built.
Answer: B. Operational continuity calls for phasing.

Question 5. In a CMAR fast-track project, when should the GMP typically be established? (A) At programming; (B) At schematic design; (C) When design is sufficiently complete to price with reasonable contingency, generally at design development or later; (D) After final completion.
Answer: C.

9. Quick Review Checklist
- Fast-track = overlap design and construction to save time.
- Phased = divide work into parts for funding, operations, logistics, or occupancy.
- Trade-off: time versus cost and scope certainty.
- Compatible delivery: CMAR, agency CM with multiple primes, design-build. Not design-bid-build.
- Key risks: design changes to built work, scope gaps, cost uncertainty, coordination, claims.
- Key controls: bid package plan, scope matrix, design milestones, integrated master schedule, contingencies and allowances, early procurement, interface management.
- CM role: advise, plan, integrate, coordinate, document, manage risk, and administer phased turnover.

Master these points and you will be able to answer CCM exam questions on fast-track and phased construction with confidence.