Blueprint for Success: A Construction Industry Guide for Agents
The construction industry is undergoing a lot of change. Watch as experts from Travelers and several key construction sectors discuss trending issues. Understanding these issues helps agents keep the edge they need – today and tomorrow.
General contractor challenges: From site security to subcontractors
General contractors are responsible for the overall management of construction projects. Watch as Adam Kallstrom of Travelers visits a job site in the Northeast where multiple specialty subcontractors must coordinate on work.
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Logo: Travelers. Text: General Contractors: What You Need to Know. A Blueprint for Success. A man wears a white Travelers -branded hard hat and hi-vis vest. Text: Adam Kallstrom, AVP, Construction, Energy and Marine, Travelers.
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I lead a group of industry edge construction professionals at Travelers. And our folks are really meant to empower our underwriters with deep construction expertise and knowledge. We provide training to really support the construction customer.
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Construction workers stretch on a job site. Cranes and other equipment sit in front of a brick building that extends along the water. Another man wears a Travelers hard hat and hi-vis vest. Text: Mark Nowakowski, AVP, Construction Risk Control, Travelers.
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We're here today in Norwalk, Connecticut, at the Walk Bridge project. We're working with general contractors. They're going to be replacing the existing bridge with a new bridge.
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A tram passes across a bridge that extends over a river. A man wears a hard hat printed with his name. Text: Matt Riley, Project Director, Cianbro.
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This corridor is the main commuter corridor for rail traffic from New Haven to New York City. The biggest challenge with train traffic is you can't just move it around like you can with interstate traffic and open up work areas.
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Workers walk around materials on the job site.
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General contractors typically sit at the top of the food chain on any given construction project. They also assume a tremendous amount of financial responsibility on any given project.
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The tram rumbles over the bridge.
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The Walk Bridge project is a very unique operation. One, it's divided by a river. The second, because of the location, there just is a higher level of exposure to having things go missing from a job site.
So securing the site is a key exposure that general contractors are responsible for. Our risk control consultants do a lot of site survey work to help contractors identify where they may have weaknesses in protecting their overall job site from theft and vandalism.
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A construction worker carries a box from a shipping container.
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CRT, contractual risk transfer, this is, for general contractors, really their key exposure that they face, right? Because they have so many different relationships on a project. And so as they work with other subcontractors, they want to transfer that liability or that risk to those subcontractors.
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Two workers carry a piece of material over a walkway. The arm of an orange piece of machinery lowers a metal tube.
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Projects like the Walk Bridge are so complex. The biggest challenge is really making sure that all of the subcontractors that you have on-site are qualified to do the work and to make sure that that work is executed appropriately.
They also are responsible to make sure that the project is completed in the manner in which it was designed and specified to prevent future construction defect risks from happening after a project is complete.
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Workers put on white and yellow PPE suits, tucking them into boots and putting on gloves.
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We have dedicated underwriters, we have dedicated risk control consultants and we have dedicated claims professionals so that we can help our customers, one, get their employees home safe. Two, make sure that the contractual risk transfer for general contractors is done appropriately.
And we really want to help them identify critical exposures that they may face and better ways that they can help mitigate some of those exposures.
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Logo: Travelers. Text: General Contractors: Want to Know More? Visit travelers dot com slash Construction Blueprint. © Copyright 2024 The Travelers Indemnity Company. All rights reserved. Travelers and the Travelers Umbrella logo are registered trademarks of The Travelers Indemnity Company in the U.S. and other countries.
Bridge contractor challenges: From cranes to construction defect claims
Bridge contractors are responsible for designing and building bridges and other highway-related structures. Watch as Perron Wiley of Travelers discusses some of the work zone, crane and environmental risks at these construction sites.
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Logo: Travelers. Text: Bridge Contractors: What You Need to Know. A Blueprint for Success. A man wears a Travelers Construction-branded pullover. Text: Perron Wiley, Director, Construction, Energy and Marine, Travelers.
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I'm an industry edge director within our construction, energy and marine group. My primary role there is really to support our construction underwriters across the country.
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Railroad ties lay in stacks. Harnesses hang from hooks. A train rolls by.
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The Walk Bridge project involves the replacement of a 127-year-old swing bridge. This bridge has a 100-year life span, which it has far exceeded at this point.
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Workers walk on the metal bridge. From below, a brick wall supports the bridge.
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So there are about 175 passenger trains that cross that bridge daily.
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Green metal supports cross in X shapes below the bridge. A train rumbles over it.
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Every time I think about bridge construction, I focus on cranes just because cranes are some of the most expensive pieces of equipment, some of the most pivotal pieces of equipment on the job site, and also could create some of the most severe losses that we find on the job site as well.
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Cranes sit on the job site. An arm of a yellow crane reaches high into the sky.
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We also want to make sure and ask questions if those cranes are owned by the bridge contractor, if they are renting cranes to others and if there's contractual language in place if they are renting cranes from other operations.
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One crane sits behind another, the arms of the two cranes creating a V shape.
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Construction defect is a really important exposure for us that we like to consider and underwrite very thoroughly just to make sure that that project is being reviewed regularly, so construction defect issues are pointed out early and ahead of time before they become larger issues.
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Pieces of wood and metal sit stacked at the job site.
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So when you think about bridge construction and the composition of their auto fleet, oftentimes vehicles might be carrying oils, or aggregate or different types of materials that have risks of being discharged into nearby bodies of water.
You also have to worry about disrupting the natural habitat for wildlife near bodies of water or other areas where bridges are being constructed. And we do have a contractors pollution liability team that helps mitigate some of those environmental issues.
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A gull flies over the river near the bridge. A thin yellow tube curves across the river.
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Working with bridge contractors, it's exciting for me because there are a lot of exposures. At Travelers, we help bridge contractors with a lot of those exposures and identify various different types of controls that we can implement to help those contractors on the job site.
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Workers in construction helmets and hi-vis vests stand on the bridge job site. Logo: Travelers. Bridge Contractors: Want to Know More? Visit travelers dot com slash Construction Blueprint. © Copyright 2024 The Travelers Indemnity Company. All rights reserved. Travelers and the Travelers Umbrella logo are registered trademarks of The Travelers Indemnity Company in the U.S. and other countries.