Vanessa Williams

Vanessa’s professional experience includes:

• University of Washington: Vanessa serves as one of the engagement managers involved in assisting and responding to various requests from the University of Washington capital projects office under the University of Washington open order auditing contract. Requests from the capital projects office include requested audits of general and subcontractor costs at various stages of the project; prior to finalizing the contract value, at specified points while the projects are going, and after project completion. Requests also include auditing the cost records of project architects and analyzing the financial conditions of RFP respondents. Vanessa has been involved in all phases of the University of Washington work.
• Washington State University: Similar to the work for the University of Washington, Vanessa is one of the primary engagement managers involved in assisting and responding to requests from the WSU facilities services office under the Washington State University Master Agreement for Capital Construction Auditor Services. Requests from the facilities services office include audits of general contract/construction manager (GC/CM) costs at specified points while the projects are going and at project completion. These audits include analyzing the GC/CM’s costs as well as participating in communications with both WSU and/or the GC/CM, providing clarification of the audit findings. Vanessa has been involved in and provided oversight for both phases of the Washington State University work.
• New York Sludge Ship Project: Vanessa was part of a team engaged to quantify the additional costs, damages and delays suffered by a large ship-building contractor during the manufacture of three sludge ship vessels. Vanessa assisted with the preparation of an expert report and rebuttal report related to the costs and damages incurred by the contractor. The team’s work included quantifying damages owed to the contractor for inefficiencies due to delays and disruption, directed acceleration, overtime premiums, extended overtime, additional engineering efforts, and extended costs including overhead, bond and insurance.
• Sound Transit U240 – Capitol Hill Station: Vanessa assisted counsel at Sound Transit in analyzing the general contractor’s claim and determining the general contractor’s financial position on the Capitol Hill Station project. The claim included requested amounts for both extended and expanded general conditions, and therefore the work involved analyzing general conditions costs and determining whether overlap existed between the claim elements. Vanessa and the project team worked with both electronic and hard copy documentation and data for cost and claim analysis and ultimately provided recommended adjustments to the claimed amounts. Because there were various negotiated agreements as the project progressed, the work also included analyzing the project overruns and underruns at various points in time as compared to agreed-upon contract amounts. Vanessa participated in a mediation for the project.
• Sound Transit C735 – Rainier Valley Light Link Rail: Vanessa was involved in reviewing the general contractor’s and several sub-contractors’ claims related to a Sound Transit project involving light rail track construction south of Seattle. Vanessa’s role included fully analyzing the damage components of the various claims submitted, a large portion of which represented claimed labor amounts. Throughout Vanessa’s involvement, memoranda of findings were prepared that summarized the analyses performed, and these memoranda were utilized in mediation. The work culminated with the deposition and arbitration testimony of Vanessa on behalf of Sound Transit.