How Turner Obtained Faster Approvals and Cost Transparency on a COVID-19 Project

Turner Construction is one of the world’s leading construction firms with an annual volume of work averaging $16 billion. Turner averages 1,500 projects per year and was Ranked #1 Builder in ENR (Engineering News-Record) in Commercial, Green, Healthcare, and Sports Construction.

We sat down for a Q&A session with Nadeen Qaru, Project Manager at Turner Construction, to discuss how Clearstory helped Turner maintain cost transparency on a COVID-19 Field Hospital project. Read on to learn how digital T&M tags helped maintain COVID protocol and streamlined their Change Order process.

About the project

In response to COVID-19, Turner Construction worked with the California Department of General Services (DGS) to transform the Sleep Train Arena into an alternate care facility for COVID-19 patients. In three short weeks, the former NBA Arena was remodeled to house 360 beds and additional hospital services.

What challenges did you face?

Given the quick turnaround time, the project costs had to be tracked and reimbursed on a Time & Material basis. Traditional methods of signing daily paper T&M tags and getting costs emailed later would not have been efficient. Turner and our Trade Partners needed to focus on project execution and not be consumed with manual paperwork.

NadeenQaru_Turner

"On the last day of work, Turner knew the project cost in real-time and did not have to spend extra weeks or months on cost reconciliation."

Nadeen Qaru
Project Manager at Turner Construction

Why did you choose Clearstory?

Because of our success with Clearstory in the past, we required Trade Partners to digitally document their work daily using Clearstory's mobile app and easily convert digital T&M Tags into cost summaries with Clearstory's automated process.

During COVID specifically, Turner Superintendents could maintain a safe distance from Trade Partners and remotely review and sign T&M Tags. Clearstory's great reporting gave Turner the ability to run T&M, Change Orders, and Change Order Log reports to better manage our cost as well as sharing these logs with the client. This full transparency allowed for quicker turnaround of cost approvals.

What was your workflow like with Clearstory?

At the end of each day, the Trade Partner foreman created a digital T&M Tag documenting the days labor hours, material and equipment spent.
Turner’s superintendent reviewed and signed the T&M Tag remotely on their own device and added comments if needed.
The signed Tag was logged instantly for all parties.
The next day, each trade partner with the click of a button created an associated Change Order Requesting using the pre-approved rates on the project.
Turner instantly received the COR and reviewed directly in Clearstory's digital COR log.

Clearstory allowed Turner to maintain full transparency of cost with no surprises.

What are the results of using Clearstory?

We’ve seen several benefits, including:

Better quality documentation from our Trade Partners, including pictures, employee names, description of work, PCO numbers, etc.
Quicker signatures from Turner field staff
Quicker turnaround of Change Orders
Quicker approval from clients
Faster billing process

Over the span of 3 weeks, Turner processed over 70 daily T&M tags from our trade partners and millions of dollars in Change Orders. On the last day of work, Turner knew the project cost in real time and did not have to spend extra weeks or months on cost reconciliation as would be typical of similar projects.