TUNNEL · CIVIL AND EARTHWORK · FIXED BY STEP 08

The void turns up after somebody else paves

A dip appeared in new asphalt six months after you demobilized, and the repair bill came back to you as a backcharge.

WHY IT'S A TUNNEL PROBLEM

Other trades' defects appear during the work or on a warranty walk, on something a person can look at. Soil settlement is a slow physical process over a void only you created, and it turns up months after your final pay app on a surface a different contractor installed and priced. That combination is why tunnel subs absorb restoration costs at a scale no other trade on the site sees.

WHAT IT COSTS

The size of it

A four figure grout shortcut becomes a five figure pavement and restoration backcharge pulled out of retention on a job you closed and booked a year ago. With no settlement surveys and no grout volume records, you don't have anything to argue with.

OVERHEAD AT $1M–$5M

16%

CFOS target 15% for tunnel.

GROSS MARGIN AT $1M–$5M

23%

CFOS target 25.5% for tunnel.

NET PROFIT AT $1M–$5M

CFOS target 10.5% for tunnel.

When the annular space between the casing and the soil isn't fully contact grouted, or overcut and face pressure ran loose through soft soil, the soil consolidates over weeks to months. By then the trench is backfilled, the road is paved, and your crew is three jobs away. The void belongs to you and no one argues about it, so pavement repair, traffic control, and the surface owner's restoration all come back as a backcharge. Final CCTV, air, and mandrel testing of the carrier pipe runs on the same delay, since it happens at closeout after everyone has demobilized, and a failed deflection test means excavating through new pavement.

WHAT TO DO

Three moves, in order

STEP 01

Shoot pre-drive and post-drive settlement surveys on fixed points over every alignment, and file them to the job folder the day they're taken.

STEP 02

Log theoretical annulus volume against grout pumped on each drive, signed by the superintendent, before the crew leaves the shaft.

STEP 03

Hold a backcharge reserve against retention per crossing until CCTV, air, and mandrel testing pass, and keep it on the WIP as an open item until it clears.

THE FIX

Step 08: Standards and accountability

Five hours a month of owner time, spent projecting the work.

CFOS-08 · CHAPTER 8

Five hours a month, spent projecting the work

What this step changes, what it depends on, and how to tell it's installed.

BENCHMARKS

Tunnel by revenue band

All 7 bands are published. The CFOS target is beside the figure up to $10M to $25M, and the 4 bands above that are labelled modeled.

ACROSS EVERY TRADE

PMs aren't accountable for margin

Your PMs are measured on schedule and on the client being happy. No role in the company is measured on the number at the bottom.

SAME TRADE

What else costs tunnel contractors money

TUNNEL · CFOS-01

Your jacking pipe is bought before the shaft is dug

You wired a deposit for casing cut to one crossing, and the first pay app on that drive is still two months out.

TUNNEL · CFOS-04

The railroad's eight weeks run on your money

You pay two grand just to apply and buy a five million dollar railroad policy for every crossing, and then you pay the railroad's flagger to watch you work.

TUNNEL · CFOS-04

You bid a foot and the mill sells you a ton

You priced a hundred dollars a foot of casing, then the mill quoted by the ton at a wall thickness the engineer moved during review.

TUNNEL · CFOS-06

Six setups bill against one mobilization line

Six crossings means six setups and six teardowns, and the contract has a single capped mobilization item to cover all of it.

TUNNEL · CFOS-02

Slow digging costs the same and bills half the feet

The machine, the crew, and the daily burn don't change when production halves, and the estimate only knows dollars per linear foot.

SAME MECHANISM, OTHER TRADES

The same mechanism in other trades

CIVIL

Trench dips appear inside the bond window

The parking lot settled over your sewer line eighteen months after acceptance, and who pays comes down to whether the density test for that station and that lift is in a file.

DEMOLITION

They Found A Tank A Year After You Demobilized

An old UST turns up under the pad twelve months after your last load left, and every finger points at the contractor who isn't on site anymore.

DRYWALL

The eleven-month callback hits this year's payroll

It's March, two of your best guys are in a truck all month fixing houses you finished last spring, and none of those hours bill.

QUESTIONS

What tunnel owners ask

Settlement backcharge for pavement repair over my casing?

A dip appeared in new asphalt six months after you demobilized, and the repair bill came back to you as a backcharge.

What does it cost?

What do I do first?

Shoot pre-drive and post-drive settlement surveys on fixed points over every alignment, and file them to the job folder the day they're taken.

What are tunnel contractors supposed to be making?

Tunnel runs 23% gross margin, 16% overhead and 7% net profit before taxes at $1M–$5M. The all-trade average is 7%, so this trade is right on it. The CFOS target is 10.5%.

Which part of the system fixes it?

The step is number 08, standards and accountability. Five hours a month of owner time, spent projecting the work. It comes from chapter 8 of CONTROL: The Construction Financial Operating System.

OR HAVE IT HANDLED

Everything on this page is something you can install yourself, andCONTROL is the order to do it in. If you would rather buy the finished result, SPM The Construction CFO does this work for tunnel contractors as a service. It is a separate firm, Sulphur Prairie Management, LLC, run by the same author.

What a fractional CFO does for tunnel contractors

AUTHOR

JOSH LUEBKER

MASTER ELECTRICIAN · 150+ PROJECTS · $2.1B+ MANAGED

Wrote CONTROL, the 8 step system behind these figures. More about the author.