Spent 5 months fighting a concrete pour schedule because nobody flagged a utility line on the drawings

Joel Harris · 2026-09-16T12:15:05.887875+00:00

We were pouring foundation walls on a 40,000 sq ft warehouse in Reno and I built the whole schedule around a 3 week pour window. Turns out there was a fiber optic line running right through grid line C that showed up on the civil drawings but not the structural set I was working from. It took 5 months of back and forth with the utility company, the city, and the owner to get it relocated, and we ended up pouring in November instead of June. Cost the owner about $180k in delays and I looked like an idiot in three OAC meetings. Now I make my super walk every utility plan against the structural before we even mobilize. The real kicker is the civil engineer knew about it and just assumed someone else would flag it. Has anyone else dealt with a scope gap like this between disciplines, and how do you catch it before it wrecks your schedule?

Librear

Loading…

Spent 5 months fighting a concrete pour schedule because nobody flagged a utility line on the drawings | Construction Management - Librear