Client Name: Honeywell

MDC® was asked to investigate and provide a project analysis of a $104 million fixed-price contract for the expansion of an existing Integrated Highway Monitoring and Control System managed by a Turnpike Authority. This system is a traffic management and data acquisition application supporting travel through the heart of a major east-coast city.

On this project our client encountered undocumented/varying site conditions requiring more than 530 Field Change Notices, 450 modifications (RFPs), 1450 RFIs and 520 Notices of Change. Our client ultimately expended more than 250,000 additional system engineering hours to implement the design through the opening of the roadway. Our client also spent an additional 200,000 engineering hours to complete the scope of work.

MDC® determined that problems with the physical construction of the roadways and right of ways for the automation system were responsible for the field construction delays. More significantly, failures in the original computer architecture, data transmission rates, and the rapidly changing technology for the components of the control system had the greatest impact on the overall schedule delay and cost increases.

MDC® provided our client with technical and schedule analysis concerning the software, hardware and construction work for this project. The complexity imposed on the project by the rapidly changing computer technology coupled with unrealistic client expectations for systems upgrades during the course of construction was the root cause of the cost increases and schedule delay.