Why Summer Construction Disputes Are Surging
Summer is the busiest season on the construction calendar: longer daylight hours, fully staffed job sites, multiple trades working together to hit weather-dependent windows, and general contractors racing to complete exterior work before fall. But as construction activity accelerates, so does the frequency of delay disputes. Compressed schedules leave little slack to absorb a late material delivery, a subcontractor default, or a string of severe weather days. When a project falls behind during peak season, the financial exposure compounds quickly — liquidated damages clauses trigger, extended general conditions accrue, and multiple parties start pointing at each other over who owns the delay.
According to HKA’s latest CRUX Insight report cash flow and payment disputes now rank as the fourth most common cause of construction claims and disputes globally, affecting 14.3% of projects completed since 2020, rising to 22.2% on megaprojects, even as most other dispute triggers have declined.
At the same time, persistent supply chain volatility and continued severe weather patterns mean that “force majeure” and excusable-delay arguments are showing up more often in these disputes, adding another layer of factual and technical complexity that must be resolved before liability can even be assessed.
Owners, in turn, are under their own pressure to open facilities or turn over units on schedule, which means they are less willing to grant informal extensions and more likely to document delay events in real time and route disputes toward formal claims rather than negotiated fixes. The result is a summer construction claims environment where more disputes are surfacing, and where the parties on both sides are arriving better documented and more litigation-ready than in past seasons.
Why Expert Testimony Is Essential in Delay Disputes
Construction delay disputes are rarely a simple question of “who was late.” They involve causation and quantification questions that fall well outside common knowledge:
- Was the delay critical-path or non-critical?
- Was it excusable (weather, differing site conditions, owner-caused) or attributable to the contractor’s own performance?
- Was it concurrent with another party’s delay, limiting who can recover?
- How much did the delay actually cost in extended overhead, acceleration expenses, or liquidated damages?
Answering these questions requires more than a review of the contract. It requires a technical reconstruction of the schedule itself. Courts and arbitration panels expect delay claims to be supported by recognized scheduling methodologies and analyses (such as those outlined in AACE International’s recommended practices).
Without a credible expert, counsel is left arguing conclusions rather than demonstrating them. A well-supported delay analysis can be the difference between a claim that survives summary judgment and one that doesn’t, and it is often the single most contested piece of evidence in a construction dispute.
This is also where either side can gain (or lose) ground if counsel hasn’t lined up the right experts early. Scheduling experts often present a single, clean narrative of causation, and without an opposing expert who can walk through the same schedule data and identify the competing or concurrent causes the original analysis leaves out, that narrative can go largely unchallenged. Retaining a qualified delay analyst early, before deposition testimony locks in a theory of the case, gives counsel on either side the ability to test the opposing schedule logic and build the strongest possible causation and damages position for their client.
The Experts On The Bench This Season
Building a well-rounded argument around a summer delay claims typically means assembling more than one type of expert, since causation, engineering, and cost issues rarely fall to a single discipline:
How Intellex Supports Litigation Teams
Intellex curates expert witnesses across construction, cause and origin, claims valuation, and cost estimation. As summer construction claims accelerate, our team works quickly to match counsel with industry experts who are well suited to the specific facts of the matter. Each candidate is vetted for subject-matter depth, testifying experience, and availability against tight litigation timelines.
If your firm is preparing for a wave of summer construction claims, Intellex can help you build the right expert team for the matter at hand — from initial case assessment through trial-ready testimony.
Our Featured Construction Experts
Meet some of our top construction experts who are ready to support your summer construction claims:
Charles H., PE, SE
Structural Engineer & Forensic Investigator
Charles is a forensic structural engineer with nearly two decades of experience investigating construction defects, structural failures, weather-related damage, and complex construction claims. Licensed in 14 states as a Professional Engineer and/or Structural Engineer, Charles has served as a consulting expert, testifying expert, arbitrator, and litigation consultant on matters involving structural design, construction, repair, and standard of care. His experience spans high-rise buildings, stadiums, hotels, parking structures, hospitals, industrial facilities, bridges, and other infrastructure projects throughout the United States and internationally. He regularly assists attorneys, owners, insurers, and contractors by determining the root cause of structural failures, evaluating compliance with the standard of care, developing repair recommendations, and providing clear, defensible engineering opinions through reporting, depositions, arbitration, and trial testimony.
Michael K., PE, MBA, CVS, TCCE
Construction & Cost Engineering Consultant
Michael K. is a Professional Engineer and Certified Cost Engineer with over three decades of hands-on construction experience spanning project management, general contracting, and cost engineering. He holds a Certified General Contractor license and has managed capital programs exceeding $300 million. He currently serves as Cost Engineer and Value Engineering Officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, where he was named 2017 Cost Engineer of the Year, and has provided expert cost and schedule analysis supporting claims negotiation, mediation, and litigation on federal and commercial projects. His credentials span PE, CCE, CPE, CCC, and Value Engineering certifications, and he also teaches construction engineering at the University of South Alabama.
Nickolas F., CFCC
Construction Scheduling & Delay Analyst/Expert Witness
Nick brings over 35 years of federal construction experience, including service as a Level III warranted contracting officer for both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC). One of only 68 professionals worldwide holding AACE International’s Certified Forensic Claims Consultant designation, he prepares and reviews Time Impact Analyses, opines on critical-path delay and liquidated damages disputes, and has testified as an expert witness in ASBCA proceedings and federal appellate litigation.
Michael P., PE
Mechanical & Forensic Engineer
Michael P. is a Principal Engineer with over 25 years of experience in mechanical systems, HVAC, and construction schedule delay analysis. He has served as an expert on multi-discipline construction defect and delay disputes, including a $1B petrochemical facility ITC schedule matter and a $28M hospital construction delay claim, and regularly advises counsel on causation involving building systems, equipment failures, and standard-of-care issues.
You can also contact us directly at sales@intellex.com to discuss your case and expert needs.