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Saturday night. Rain. Concrete. $100M at risk
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A PPP somewhere in Canada. Mid 2010s. Saturday night. Concrete poring of a key structure in the critical path of the project. Everything looked perfect on paper. Full closure approved Concrete plant booked Pumps lined up Crew ready Weather… “acceptable” 22:00 : Go time First trucks arrive. Pumps start. Concrete flowing. Then… rain. Not heavy. Not dramatic. Just enough to start messing with the surface. The kind of rain that kills quality slowly. The dangerous one. 23:30: First tension Quality team starts getting nervous. “Do we stop?” “Do we continue?” “Will it affect durability?” You stop =cold joint = structural risk = massive delay = liquidated damages that could kill the project. You continue = potential long-term defects. Pick your poison. 00:30: It gets worse Rain increases. Now it’s not theoretical anymore. Surface finishing is becoming a nightmare. Crews are fighting the concrete. Water is sitting where it shouldn’t. The design guys are called. Half asleep. Zero appetite to take responsibility. 01:30: The real problem appears Not technical. Commercial. If we abort: Hundreds of thousands wasted that night Weeks of delay Claims flying everywhere If we continue: Risk of defects Future disputes Possible rework… at 10x the cost Everyone is ass-covering, aka, protecting themselves. Classic PPP moment. 02:00: Decision time The CJV Project Director shows up. Looks at the deck. Looks at the rain. Looks at the team. And says: “We finish.” No committee. No 20-slide deck. No consultant hiding behind a report. Ownership. 04:30: Controlled chaos More crews brought in. Extra finishing teams. Heaters. Covers. Adjustments on the fly. It’s ugly. But it’s controlled ugly. 07:00: Pour completed Exhausted team. Concrete in place. Now the question: Did they just save the project… or create a future disaster? Weeks later Inspections. Testing. Monitoring. The Independent Engineer scratching his head. Verdict? Acceptable. Check. Not perfect. But compliant. Check. Crisis avoided. Look. Many projects fail in moments like this. When information is incomplete When risks are balanced in real time When nobody wants to own the call When @ss wholes start getting smaller… You can have the best contract in the world. But at 2:00 AM, in the rain, on a Saturday… It all comes down to one thing: Empowerment. Ownership. Experience… and courage to decide. Talking about decisions… what have you decided about the link below? ​My mentorship - Weekly PPP Lessons from a PPP ex-CEO​ PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Vicente Valencia
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
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