Challenge

The primary project challenge was to plan and complete this project on an open and active National Monument site under an accelerated timeline which would guarantee a completion prior to the start of the July Fourth annual festival. Early completion of the planning/design phase was critical to allow the construction phase some amount of schedule contingency necessary for expected winter and spring wet weather working conditions.

Success

To meet the aggressive design phase schedule without sacrificing quality of the resulting documents, Northstar organized the project team with weekly process coordination conferences and utilized a detailed Action Item Log. The conferences identified all incremental deliverable handoffs on a three-week look-ahead approach and clearly communicated which team member was responsible to ensure that each item was completed on time. This process fostered ownership and accountability throughout the team and resulted in meeting the aggressive completion date.