Cedar Rapids Flood Protection Program Management

HR Green is providing program management services for the City of Cedar Rapids’ $500 Million infrastructure project to provide flood protection and reconstruction of the City’s infrastructure, including the street network and utility systems for the west side of the Cedar River. This exciting project is instrumental in the redevelopment of Cedar Rapids after the devastating flood in 2008. This program is funded by the Iowa Flood Mitigation Grant, Federal Funding through the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the City of Cedar Rapids, and other potential funding sources as they become available. The program management services will encompass the entirety of the proposed flood protection system resulting in a specific technical, financial, and management plan for moving forward with flood protection. HR Green is directly leading the overall project management of the Project Management Team (PMT) and the development of the Project Management Plan (PMP). This includes project planning and development, reporting of funds use, and financial plan with grant applications.

As the project lead, HR Green provides continuous, consistent, and complete information concerning this multi-faceted endeavor. HR Green has utilized numerous forms of media to deliver and solicit feedback – both face-to-face and digital to ensure that we use means to engage the widest possible audience that may use different media to get information and provide feedback. Specifically, the HR Green Team has used several mechanisms that enable stakeholders to provide input and follow the progress of the project including the use of advisory committee meetings, preparation and distribution of meeting minutes to all who are interested in receiving them, hosting open house meetings, one-on-one meetings, and project updates to keep stakeholders aware of project progress and solicit input on a continual basis. Additionally, HR Green utilizes a project tracker website to keep stakeholders informed. This website included project background/history information, committee member names, contact information, photo tours, schedules, maps, and trail segments.

HR Green leads the collaboration and everyday operations of four leading engineering firms, bringing top local talent and national expertise to the project. As the project lead, HR Green is responsible for augmenting current client staff and facilitating coordination with a team comprised of many different local teams and sub-consultants. Additionally, this project required active communication and coordination with third-party permitting agencies such as the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT), USACE, Utility Companies, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), and developers.

Risk assessment and mitigation is an important part of the team’s responsibilities. As part of HR Green’s Program Manager responsibilities, our team led the development of a Risk Matrix, where specific general risks were identified, along with action plans and status tracking. Each “risk” was evaluated for its potential impact on the project’s cost and/or schedule. Some of the identified risks in this project included: Funding and Economic uncertainty, Contractual and Regulatory, Environmental (such as hazardous and/or toxic material remediation), Weather, Flooding, Construction Marketplace, among others.

Due to the complexity and duration of this project, contract management is of paramount importance. Our technical professionals are helping lead and support numerous program management components including managing the overall staff levels and cost management to provide effective oversight of the contractor’s operations and to keep the client’s financial interest protected. HR Green utilizes software to manage construction costs of multiple bid packages and matches the letting of multiple projects with construction and available project funding. HR Green also implemented the use of Newforma and ProjectWise to manage the project documents. Using the Critical Path Method (CPM) HR Green has been able to maintain the projects’ planning, design, permitting, and property acquisition schedule.