Letters to the Editor
HA's CM/Build is a Success

To the Editor:

In a recent letter to The Chief (July 6th issue) the writers, including the president of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 of District Council 37, took issue with certain aspects of the New York City Housing Authority's Capital Construction Program. We believe strongly that the strength of our program is the dedicated staff who ensure quality construction for the residents of public housing.

As in any capital program, our success is supported through partnerships with the many contractors who work in our developments. NYCHA is more than half way through a 5-year, $2-billion capital program focusing on upgrades to our building exteriors and infrastructure. A portion of this program is being managed through Construction Management firms, similar to an approach taken by many other governmental agencies. The unique skills and expertise of the CMs is allowing us to achieve success in areas where we've historically faced the greatest challenges.

Our CM/Build program allowed us to pre-qualify vendors who met certain financial and work experience qualifications, thus improving the quality of vendors doing business with the agency. We have seen approximately a 20 percent improvement on on-time completion of projects. (Prior to 2004, the on-time completion rate for NYCHA's conventionally bid work was approximately 35 percent.)

The CM/Build program has been extremely valuable in procuring construction services in a shorter period of time for our Community Center program for projects that were delayed due to the default of one of the contractors. Some of the projects that benefited from the CM/Build program are Community Centers at Bayview, Betances and Marlboro Houses.

NYCHA requires the CMs to do sufficient outreach to encourage a minimum of six bids on each task order. This has resulted in better bids because of increased competition. As with all construction projects today, we are challenged by rapidly rising construction costs, as seen by bids in our conventional (non-CM) program which are significantly over our estimates.

Regarding construction costs, most of the projects committed to the CM/Build program are building exterior jobs such as façade restorations and roofs. The estimates associated with these projects were developed in-house and were, in most cases, over two years old. These estimates were based on preliminary scopes developed during initial field surveys. Additionally, the general cost escalation for construction materials resulting from a booming construction market in New York City over the last few years and other cost escalations such as the price of steel, concrete and gas impacted on the initial estimates for these projects. The costs were adjusted by the CM firms prior to bidding the work.

We see the CM/Build program as a vital, cost-effective component of NYCHA's overall construction program. It is NYCHA's commitment to use our scarce capital resources in the most effective way possible to ensure quality construction and to continue our commitment to the more-than 500 staff who are a part of the Capital Project Division. I am proud to be associated with such fine employees and will continue to work closely with them and Local 375 to ensure the quality of our program.

LOUIE RUEDA,
Deputy General Manager or Capitol Projects, New York City Housing Authority