Risk Informed Decision Making for Construction, Repair, and Maintenance Projects

Dam Owners and Regulators increasingly use Risk Informed Decision Making (RIDM) in the development and implementation of large dam improvement projects. In this context, the risk is Dam Safety related. But what if we used RIDM in the design, estimating, and planning of our projects? When Owners and Engineers come together to develop a project, the result is an estimated cost, estimated schedule, and detailed design that can be written into a request for proposal or quotes. It is a rare occurrence when an Owner and Engineer can, with assurity, say that they know exactly how a construction project will go. Unknowns lead to assumptions and if there are enough of them our Risk-Informed process may be better categorized as a Risk- “Assumed” decision making process. Risk assumed evaluations can lead to hidden contingencies, change orders, schedule delays, and cost over runs. The intent of this paper is to provide the reader with tools that can be used to make us better “Informed” before our construction projects begin.