DEVELOPMENT OF WORKING DAY WEATHER CHARTS FOR TRANSPORTATION CONSTRUCTION IN SOUTH DAKOTA

Seasonal and daily weather events impact grading, surfacing and structure construction projects in various ways across the different climate regions of the state. When weather conditions prevent timely completion of major sequential components of a construction project, it often requires additional construction time leading to delays and subsequent requests for contract time extensions. Past experience has shown that significant time and effort are spent on settling disputes between what the contractor and the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) consider to be a reasonable number of weather related non-working days during the contracting period. In addition, SDDOT plans to implement innovative contracting methods designed to reduce the time of highway construction projects. Before the SDDOT and contractors can fully implement innovative contracting procedures such as incentive-disincentive contracts, A+B bidding, and lane rental, they need guidance on the number of construction working days available in the different climate regions of South Dakota for grading, surfacing and structural projects. The overall goals of the project are: 1) reduce contractors' risks related to bidding innovative contracting, calendar-day, working-day and completion-date projects; 2) reduce the magnitude and number of disputes, claims, time extension requests and costs due to weather delays; and 3) provide the SDDOT with tools that will enable a more accurate determination of contract completion requirements. This study produced various charts defining the expected adverse weather days and expected working days for six zones and two construction type categories. Procedures for using this information to calculate contract time and determine time extensions for adverse weather are presented.