How this Houston-area school district keeps its construction projects ahead of schedule and under budget (Source: Houston Business Journal)
By Paul Takahashi
Construction projects are notorious for their lengthy delays and cost overruns.
However, Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District has managed to avoid these pitfalls, so far delivering its four-year, $267 million school construction and renovation program ahead of schedule and under budget. So how does this Baytown-area school district do it?
“Goose Creek has a strong history of growth in building its facilities to meet the needs of the community,” said Randal O’Brien, Goose Creek CISD’s superintendent. “But it hasn’t always been smooth, historically.”
Goose Creek CISD, which has nearly 24,000 students, used to have its small construction department oversee school construction projects across the 158-acre district. However, with resources tight, the department often struggled to facilitate all the various architects, general contractors and engineers involved in major school construction programs, O’Brien said.
So the district hired a project manager to oversee its construction program, a practice common among commercial developers working on major projects. For its most recent school construction program, Goose Creek CISD hired LAN to shepherd all the projects from design to completion.
