WUSM Research Building, St. Louis, MO

WUSM Research Building

St. Louis, MO

Alberici Constructors, Inc. (Alberici) was the general contractor for a six-floor expansion to the existing Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) BJC Institute of Health building, which sits at the center of the Medical Campus. The $165-million-addition includes 160,000 square feet of laboratory space, including a 7,900-square-foot high-containment laboratory to support research on infectious viruses.

Alberici engaged Murphy Company (Murphy) to perform the mechanical and plumbing scopes of work. During the project, Murphy’s work was delayed, impacted, and compressed. As a result of those impacts, Murphy experienced significant labor overruns of its originally anticipated labor hours.

TRAUNER assisted Murphy in analyzing the project schedules and Murphy’s labor and cost information. TRAUNER identified that many of the predecessor delays to Murphy’s scope were being mitigated by compressing and accelerating Murphy’s work, which resulted in inefficiencies and increased labor hours. TRAUNER prepared several presentations, analyses, and letters for Murphy’s use with Alberici that detailed this situation and the ultimate impact it had on Murphy. Ultimately, with the assistance of TRAUNER, Murphy prevailed in a successful settlement of its claims.