Project Recovery First-Look Guide

Evidence first

A stalled project is usually not short of opinions. It is short of an organised record.

• □Collect the current contract set, amendments and change orders in one place.
• □Reconcile paid-to-date against installed and accepted work.
• □List open claims, notices, liens and disputes with dates.
• □Gather permits and conditions, including anything expired or lapsed.
• □Identify the last point at which the record was reliable.

Authority and obligations

• □Map who can sign, bind, suspend, terminate and pay today.
• □List obligations with hard dates: loan covenants, approvals, leases, tax and insurance.
• □Confirm insurance and bonding status for the current state of the work.
• □Identify parties whose consent is required for any path forward.
• □Record where authority is contested, rather than assuming it is settled.

Cost to complete

• □Rebuild the remaining scope from the current condition, not from the original budget.
• □Price rework, protection, remobilisation and repricing of expired quotes separately.
• □Treat unresolved claims as a range, not as a number.
• □Hold contingency for discovery; a stalled project reveals more as it reopens.
• □State clearly what has not been investigated and what that could change.

Schedule reality

• □Test whether approvals, utilities and inspections are still valid or need renewal.
• □Confirm long-lead availability at today's dates, not the original ones.
• □Sequence restart activities that must happen before any production work.
• □Identify the seasonal and jurisdictional constraints that cannot be compressed.
• □Separate a schedule from a hope: each duration needs a basis.

Outcomes that remain available

• □Restart and complete under corrected controls.
• □Restart with a different delivery structure or delivery party.
• □Pause deliberately, protect the asset and preserve optionality.
• □Sell or transfer in the current condition to a party equipped to finish.
• □Wind down in an orderly way. Choosing this early usually costs less than choosing it late.