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Replacing a roof or upgrading HVAC is hard enough. Doing that work while a service center keeps running and a control center stays online is a different challenge altogether. At a recent utilities shared practices session hosted by Facility Issues, we surveyed 14 utility facility teams about where their projects run into trouble. Their answers pointed to one theme: the problems that surface as change orders and delays during construction usually start long before construction begins.
We organized the session around three questions every utility facility project should be able to answer:
- Were we ready before we started?
- Are we in control while the work is underway?
- Did we get a facility our team can run and maintain?
What Utility Facility Teams Told Us
The results were consistent. 79% named change orders and cost growth as their top trouble spot, 71% said scope isn’t fully defined before design, and 71% hit problems from unknown existing conditions. 78% said their capital workload exceeds their team’s capacity, and 79% fast-track year-end projects with less planning than they’d like. Put those together and a pattern emerges: when workload is high and money arrives late in the year, readiness is the first thing cut, and it comes back later as change orders.
Part 1: Ready Before You Start
Build a Shelf of Ready Projects: Year-end money is predictable, even if the amount isn’t. Use facility condition assessments to rank roofs, chillers, switchgear, and other assets by risk, condition, and operational impact, then pre-scope the top candidates with a scope paragraph, a site walk, and a planning estimate. Pair that shelf with a fast contract vehicle, such as a master agreement or job order contract, so work can start in weeks instead of months. When money appears, fund the projects that are both high priority and ready to go.
Gate Every Project, Scaled to Its Size: Only 14% of respondents gate every project, yet most scope problems start on the small jobs that skip the gate. A one-page readiness gate works at any size with six questions: What’s driving the need? What does “done” look like? What can’t be interrupted? Do we know the existing conditions? Is the estimate good enough for this decision? Who owns it, and who signs off? You scale the depth, not the questions. On a $200K lighting job, each answer is a sentence; on a $30M control center, it’s a full review. The most important line is the last one: have your facility O&M lead sign the page.
Investigate Before You Design: Unknown conditions are usually unknown because no one paid to find out. Fund investigation as its own phase, including roof cores, probes, utility locates, hazmat surveys, and as-built verification. Bring your own technicians into planning; they know what’s behind the wall. For what you can’t eliminate, carry allowances or unit prices in the bid and size contingency to what you actually know.
From the field: On one project, a flow test from an earlier project showed the building wouldn’t need a fire pump, so the next project was scoped without one. When that project came off the shelf, a new flow test triggered a fire pump, adding about $1.2 million in scope. Data from another project, or from a few years ago, isn’t an investigation. Verify it before you set the budget.
Part 2: In Control While the Work Is Underway
Find Out Why Your Change Orders Happen: Most teams track what change orders cost; few track why they happen. Classify every change by cause: owner scope, design error, unforeseen condition, regulatory, contractor, or escalation. Then fix the cause it points to. Owner scope changes mean tightening the gate, unforeseen conditions mean more investigation, and design errors mean adding peer or constructability review. If unforeseen conditions cost you $400K a year, a $50K investigation budget is an easy sell. Control added scope with sponsor approval and a funding source, back it with corporate design standards, and file lessons learned by project type so the next roof or HVAC job starts smarter.
Put a Clock on Every Decision: 64% of respondents report schedule delays, and many named slow internal approvals as the cause. You can’t force a faster decision, but you can make the delay visible. Keep a decision log with an owner and due date for every open item, put owner decisions on the project schedule, and escalate when deadlines are missed. Order long-lead equipment like switchgear, generators, and large HVAC units as early as the design allows, and submit permits early.
Plan Around Occupants and Critical Functions: Dispatch, crews, and control centers keep running while the work happens. Map blackout periods like storm season, peak load, and shift changes before scheduling construction. Run every outage or cutover as an operational event with a written plan, a go/no-go call, and a rollback. Give contractors a site playbook covering access, escorts, noise, dust, parking, deliveries, and emergency egress. And keep occupants informed with regular updates, two-week look-aheads, and one point of contact.
Part 3: A Facility Your Team Can Run
Plan the Handover From Day One: A project can be complete on paper and still not be ready for your team to run and maintain. Write turnover into the contract, including as-builts, CMMS asset data, O&M manuals, warranties, and recorded training. Bring commissioning in during design for complex or critical systems, not at punch list. Give your O&M team the final sign-off, with check-ins at kickoff, schematic design, and before bid.
When Funding Moves Mid-Project: Phase scope into fundable pieces that each end in a usable, safe state, so a funding cut defers a phase instead of stranding half-built work. Put make-safe, suspension, and demobilization terms in the contract before you need them, forecast monthly spend from the schedule, and document every stop with a restart checklist. On one lab project with funding only through year-end, we designed the full project, then contracted it one scope at a time. If funding continues, the next scope is ready. If it doesn’t, nothing is stranded.
Closing the Capacity Gap
Everything above takes time, and most utility teams don’t have enough of it. Standardize repeatable programs like roofs, HVAC, and lighting on shared templates and master agreements. Have approved outside project management support under contract before a surge hits; only 14% of respondents bring in help for peaks today. And whoever does the work, keep owner decisions in-house: requirements, approvals, risk tolerance, and acceptance.
Conclusion
If you only do three things after reading this: put a one-page readiness gate on every project, classify your last ten change orders by cause, and start a shelf of ready projects before next year-end. None of them require new headcount or new software.
REMS serves as owner’s representative for utility facilities across the country, from control centers to service centers. Contact us to talk through readiness on your next project, or to request a copy of our one-page readiness gate