You're facing construction delays due to bad weather. How will you catch up and meet project deadlines?

To catch up on construction delays due to bad weather, ensure these steps are addressed in the risk register and assessment: 1. Preemptive Planning: Incorporate potential weather delays into the initial project schedule with buffer times. 2. Resource Allocation: Plan for additional labor and extended working hours in advance. 3. Material Readiness: Ensure materials are pre-ordered and on-site to avoid further delays. 4. Protective Measures:Include strategies for temporary enclosures and protective coverings to continue work during bad weather. 5. Regular Monitoring: Establish frequent progress reviews to quickly address delays and adjust schedules as needed.

First of all, projects are planned and estimated considering some risks and "Bad Weather" being one of them. Most of this can be dealt using schedule floats and increasing no. of crews or increasing productivity. But for this to happen, project manager must assess CPM schedule, budget, workforce. We always plan contingecy in estimate and if the CPM assessment shows that bad weather affected activites on critical path, then this is the best time to use that contingency. But first try using crews from other non-critical activities for critical activities if project is still lagging then contigency should be used. Schedule acceleration should be consulted with respective leaders and heads.

Analyze the project schedule and identify areas where adjustments can be made. This might involve compressing non-weather-dependent tasks or extending working hours. Find critical work and organise different groups for different work that needs to be done

As I have mentioned previously, all projects must have a contingency strategy with some budget in bid. For small projects you can find out contingencies manually after assessing all risk scenarios but for medium and large scale projects you should take $ amount by assuming "X%" of total bid based on experience. Generally workdays are Mon-Fri but if facing some unforeseen delays, we can also change work day schedule depending country laws, rules and regulations about #hours of work per week and compensations for overtimes. Also, by running cocurrent activites or alternating the activities. Working in shade or working outside also decides which activities to carry out and which to hold.

Planning project resources after such kind of delays is crucial if project needs to be finished by previously set deadline. To accelerate the project we need material to work with and if previously contracted supplier cannot fulfil the requirement then you will need to look for additional supplier. Managing workers around the clock will be necessary until is project is back on-time. When such delays happen then Project Manager should anticipate need for extra resources. If company does not have enough equipments then financial managers need to make a decision between renting/leasing/buying mostly depend upon funds available and project size. But always Critical Activities should be priority.

If your company is using Cloud based project management system then it is easy to track the progress but the information from groud workforce should be as accurate as possible because next analysis activities depends on that piece of information. But if you company doesn't have a cloud-based system then information can be recorded by using computer softwares or even mobile apps, just the information transfer from ground office to HQ must be quick and accurate and vice versa for project team to implement new strategies. And if still using Pen-Paper techniques then it is better to have a PMO setup on-site, this will allow teams to communicate effectively and frequent visits from essential stakeholders.

Developing a Communication Plan in Pre-Construction stage is essential for success of any project. Communication plan tells all stakeholders and team members; What information, When to share, Whom to share with, How it'll be communicated. Each stakeholder should appoint one "Point-of-Contact", taking responsibility to convey that information internally in their company. Person responsible on-site should be active, knowledgeable, and self-starter. This communication plan must be agreed by all stakeholders before commencing. Information must be accurate, credible, complete, current. Using Lean principles in communication can prove to be more beneficial.

This is just for proactive management from next project- Record all the information, improve the methodical approach for this kind of emergencies, try to use Lean Construction or Integrated Project Delivery or at least Design-Build so that Risk will be minimum. Define all possible act-of-god scenarios in contract and remedies for those situations beforehand for this you can take reference from Insurance company contracts, these situations should be mentioned in T&C or Policy Rules section. Claims and Litigations cost a lot, hence try to settle these with the help of experts, if situation arises.