Capital Project Risk Assessment and Risk Management: Best Practices, Outcomes, and Lessons Learned

SPEAKER: Alan Keizur, PE

SPEAKER’s BIO: Alan Keizur is a Principal with Golder Associates (member of WSP) based in Redmond, Washington. Alan is a civil engineer with over 25 years of experience specializing in quantitative risk assessment, risk management, decision analysis, and performance evaluation for infrastructure projects and engineered systems. Alan and his colleagues at Golder have supported the development and implementation of Washington State Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT’s) Cost Estimate Validation Process (CEVP®) for nearly 20 years, and has also provided support and training to numerous other local, state, and federal agencies, and private clients. He has successfully completed evaluations of over 200 infrastructure projects, collectively valued at over $150 billion, in various stages of development including planning, design, construction, operations, and closure. Alan has extensive experience in workshop facilitation and subject matter expert elicitation. Alan has worked across a variety of industries and applications, including transportation, buildings and facilities, mining, utilities, nuclear, and general infrastructure.

SYNOPSIS: Risk-based cost and schedule estimating approaches have been adopted by many public agencies in recent years to help address the problem of cost and schedule overrun in transportation and other infrastructure projects. However, limited research into the effectiveness of these approaches has been conducted. This talk will provide an overview of current approaches to conducting quantitative risk assessment and risk management for capital projects, highlighting the Washington State Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT’s) Cost Estimate Validation Process (CEVP®) process, along with alternative approaches employed by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). In addition, an analysis of results will be presented including: 1) the progression of risk-based estimates for 41 representative infrastructure projects across North America that each underwent multiple risk evaluations, and 2) an evaluation of the performance of 28 highway projects completed by WSDOT between 2016 and 2019, including a comparison of those projects that underwent a formal risk assessment with those projects that did not. Alan will also share his perspective on best practices and lessons learned.

LOCATION: Renaissance Seattle Hotel – Fig and The Judge Restaurant – 515 Madison Street, Seattle, Washington 98104

PROGRAM DATE & TIME (PST):
Dec 09th, 2021
5:00PM