After a devastating hurricane severely damaged a large metal manufacturing facility, the owner decided to consolidate their site from two manufacturing sites to a single more efficient site. The insurer argued that this consolidation caused delays restoring the site and therefore would not cover the loss claimed in the business interruption portion of the loss. The closed site was built in the early 20th century and was built in the current flood plain. As most of the buildings required complete reconstruction, the site would be required to be filled above the flood plain and the buildings would have to be constructed using current codes. In addition, the existing equipment would have to be removed and stored and the current buildings would have to be demolished.
The adjacent site was well documented during construction with photographic evidence that were in the state archives. This allowed us to establish the exact timeline for each phase of construction. We used the actual demolition of the closed site for the demolition portion of the schedule. We used these schedule elements to establish a theoretical timeline for the rebuilding of the closed site. This analysis showed that the consolidation of both sites into one actually took less time than to completely rebuild the closed site. This analysis was used in settlement negotiations with the insurer.