Dive Brief:

• The school board in Wake County, North Carolina, thinks the use of construction manager at risk for its projects is a non-brainer benefit to the district – the state's largest – because it involves the contractor earlier in the process and helps keep projects on schedule better.
• The board of commissioners, which the group that holds the purse strings for the schools and all other county operations, is not sold, because of gripes that small contractors are getting squeezed out of work they once could get.
• The issue appears to be that Wake's system has the manager at risk pre-qualify subcontractors who can bid on work, and that locks out some smaller businesses.

Dive Insight:

Both the school and commissioner board have been growing rapidly for years. The two boards, each elected, have not had the happiest relationship in recent years. The upshot of the contractors' complaints is a state law enacted in 2013 that says the school board has to approve CM-at-risk each time it's used.