Monitoring the Progress

If program management teams exist to help state and federal agencies take complex infrastructure improvement projects to the finish line, then project controls teams serve as the conductor. A team of qualified, certified project managers, schedulers, and engineers help steer these projects for departments of transportation, city officials, and agency directors tasked with big budgets and big expectations.

Garver’s Project Controls Team, comprised of experts spread across the country, keeps tabs on the critical details of the most complex infrastructure programs. Their focus: ensure programs stay on track and on budget while identifying any potential obstacles that might require adjustments.

“At Garver, we talk a lot about being ahead of schedule and under budget,” said Garver Program Controls Manager Mark Schwartz, CPM. “Well, it’s one thing to say it, but it’s another to provide the tools to accomplish it. That kind of foresight means we can help our clients make proactive decisions ahead of time rather than getting two-thirds of the way through a project and suddenly discovering schedule delays and budget overruns.”

Garver’s Project Controls Team provides a valuable benefit to clients faced with tough tasks. Originally built from scratch to assist the Connecting Arkansas Program, the Arkansas Department of Transportation’s $2 billion improvement program that includes 36 highway projects, the team of experts utilizes custom-built and turnkey software to benefit each individual program and its unique needs.

To date, Garver’s behind-the-scenes direction has led 28 of 36 CAP projects to completion or construction, with six more scheduled for completion in 2020.

The Project Controls Team is also helping the City of Enid, Oklahoma augment its groundwater supply with a surface water supply, a project featuring a 70-mile pipeline stretching from Kaw Lake to a new treatment plant.

“It’s not just having the data and collecting the data; it’s understanding what it’s telling you,” Schwartz said. “Are we trending a certain way? Does it need to be corrected? Where does it need to be adjusted? It comes down to building trust with our clients. They have to trust what we report. And we take that very seriously.”