Stabilising a project after a contractor crisis
How to stabilise a project when the main contractor wants out — and keep the opening date on track.
Project image
The situation
The project was approaching a critical stage, with every day affecting the planned opening date. The general contractor was a small construction company whose director was personally leading the project. Without prior notice, he left for a two-to-three-week holiday at a point when the project could not afford to lose momentum. During his absence, the site was never fully staffed and key works fell behind schedule. The team also installed the ceiling at the wrong height.
The problem
When the director returned and saw the situation, he attempted to withdraw from the project, arguing that he was not the right contractor and that we should find someone else. Replacing the contractor at this stage was not a realistic option. Suitable contractors were already committed months ahead, while taking over an unfinished project would have created additional delays, complicated the financial settlement and put the opening date at serious risk. The immediate challenge was therefore not simply to find a better contractor, but to stabilise the existing one and recover control of the programme.
What I identified
I brought the investors into the negotiations to reduce the immediate pressure on the contractor's side of the programme. As project manager, I could not unilaterally extend the deadline, but I could create the conditions for the contractor to re-engage rather than walk away. At the same time, I dealt with the incorrect ceiling height without losing time. Instead of dismantling and rebuilding the completed work, I accepted an additional cost and asked the shopfitter to adapt the wall-mounted structures to the actual height that had been built. Once the situation had stabilised, I sat down with the contractor and rebuilt the programme from the work itself. We broke the remaining scope into detailed activities and had the contractor estimate how long each one would actually take. The resulting programme brought us back to essentially the same completion timeframe I had originally been pushing for — this time based on a detailed, jointly agreed sequence of works.
What I did
The project stayed with the existing contractor, the programme was re-established, and the opening date was preserved.
The outcome
Contractor retained Programme brought back under control No time lost rebuilding the ceiling Opening date preserved