Tom Rychlewski

Rychlewski featured in 2022 Q1 ENR Cost Report

Apr 8, 2022

Engineering News-Record is one of the construction industry’s most authoritative publications. Each month they report on construction cost indexes and building cost indexes, and each quarter they research, analyze and publish a cost report. For the Q1 Report, ENR interviewed CRB’s Tom Rychlewski, Market Team Lead Director.

Continued record high material costs

Contractors had hoped a return to pre-pandemic materials supply free of logistics bottlenecks would come in early 2022, but then Russia invaded Ukraine. Oil surges while materials such as nickel and copper hit record highs.  Rychlewski and his team were able to save one client $500,000 in escalation by procuring electrical components before design was 100% done.

“The constant shift on long lead items as well as understanding how material prices are being escalated is crucial. We bought just about 80% of the raw materials, such as copper wire, and went ahead and put orders in on mechanical components, reserving our spot in line and our pricing at the current price.”

Keeping communication open with clients about shifting materials prices and using alternative types of delivery and contract instruments are necessary to keep projects moving forward.

The full report is available for download with an ENR subscription.

Follow CRB on LinkedIn