U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) implemented an enterprise-wide Tactical Communications Modernization project to upgrade Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems used by nearly 40,000 Office of Border Patrol, Office of Field Operations, and CBP Air and Marine law enforcement agents and officers in the course of their duty to protect the Nation’s borders. The $60 million program included Radio Frequency (RF) site infrastructure upgrades, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) evaluations, equipment purchase and installation, testing and training. U.S. Customs and Border Protection hired Spire by way of its representative, Quanta Construction Services, to evaluate and assist in improving contractor performance. Spire’s scope included review of the contractor’s policies and procedures, interviews with contractor personnel and development of new policies and procedures and associated documentation. Spire’s effort included review of the contractor’s Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and schedule and revisions to both. Spire also developed as-is and to-be process flow diagrams for contractor processes based on industry standard best practices. The process diagrams included work flows broken down by WBS element, role/responsibility and phase, which included preconstruction, construction, acceptance, closeout, safety, and Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC). Spire’s primary deliverable was a contractor QA/QC manual, which included the previously mentioned deliverables and facilitated contractor compliance with industry standard construction management best practices.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Tactical Communications Modernization

Spire’s project controls experts bring a comprehensive suite of skills and extensive field experience to the job site. We help project teams and management determine how far a project has progressed at any given time regarding schedule, cost, productivity, and risk and compare against contractual expectations, scope, performance criteria, and milestones. Controls can be applied to all phases of a project, from preconstruction to closeout.

Here are just some of the services our construction project controls consultants can bring to your next project:

Project controls are essential to keep complex construction projects on budget and on time. They help teams and stakeholders identify emerging risks early, before they become expensive, time-consuming problems. With advance warning, these issues can be mitigated or avoided altogether. Project controls also give leadership the data they need to set realistic expectations, manage subcontractors, and plan with confidence.

During the course of a project, program and project managers use controls to monitor time and cost expenditures and compare them to project lifecycle forecasts. They also rely on them to coordinate onsite execution with the milestones established during the design, procurement, entitlement, and pre-construction stages.