During last week’s “Meet the Construction Chiefs” program put on by Professional Women in Construction, the new Director of Project Delivery for the National Capital Region gave a candid presentation on his plan for overhauling GSA’s procurement of construction services. Andrew Blumenfeld’s plan includes identifying the contractor’s proposed completion schedule as an evaluation factors and encouraging fixed-price line items for acceleration.

Another pillar of Blumenfeld’s presentation: “excellence cannot be achieved without risk.” He was quick to recognize that the traditional tendency on public projects is to shy away from aggressive schedules, but he expressed a desire for GSA to begin accepting schedule risk as a cost management tool with the understanding that aggressive schedules “pay in the aggregate.” Hand in hand with that, he suggested that he would like to see GSA move towards an expanded use of incentive contracts. Overall, Blumenfeld hopes that these shifts to private-sector practices and construction goals will allow GSA to reduce its “time to market” and overall cost per square foot.

If Andrew Blumenfeld has his way, we will be seeing big (and quite welcome) changes in the way GSA handles construction projects.