Construction Management Services Across Texas and Oklahoma
Construction management is the discipline of controlling a project's schedule, cost, quality, safety, scope and function on the owner's behalf1. IRONWILL Earthworks provides it on site-driven work across Texas and Oklahoma, from people who self-perform the earthwork the rest of the schedule depends on.
Managed from the site, not from a distance
We build the ground the schedule stands on
Every handoff has a written acceptance test
A manager who can decide, not only relay
A project loses time at the seams between scopes
Each trade is usually competent inside its own contract. The days disappear at the boundaries: a pad released a tenth low, a density report still in the laboratory's queue when the concrete crew arrives, a storm line set out of tolerance that the fine-grading crew has to work around. Nobody owns a boundary unless the contract makes somebody own it.
IRONWILL Earthworks is an earthwork contractor before it is a construction manager, and that is the point. We know how long a lift of clay takes to dry back to optimum, what a failed test does to a pour date, and what "pad ready" has to say on paper before a foundation contractor can rely on it. Management of a site-driven job is better done by the people who have built one.
On this page: what the job is, how Texas law separates a construction manager from a general contractor, what we manage and how, where the clock actually runs, how work is verified rather than assumed, and what the owner receives. Each statute that sets one of those clocks is linked at the end.
What construction management is, in the terms the industry uses
The Construction Management Association of America defines construction management as a professional service that gives an owner effective management of a project's schedule, cost, quality, safety, scope and function, and its Standards of Practice are organized around those six areas1. On a site-work project every one of the six is decided in the dirt: the schedule runs through mass grading, the cost runs through the cut and fill balance, quality is a density report, safety is an excavation, and scope and function are whatever the civil plans and the geotechnical report say they are.
Texas law splits the title in two. A construction manager-agent provides consultation and administrative services during design and construction and manages the owner's separate contracts with the trades; the statute makes it a fiduciary and forbids it to self-perform any part of the work, hold a construction subcontract, or furnish performance and payment bonds2. A construction manager-at-risk is the general contractor: it assumes the risk of building the facility at the contracted price, which may be a guaranteed maximum, and consults on the design as it goes2.
The chapter that draws that line governs public work, but it is the clearest statement of the two roles anywhere in Texas, and private owners use the same vocabulary. The daily work is the same on either side of it: sequence, coordinate, verify, document, report. What differs is who carries the construction risk, and that decides who is entitled to say no.
Construction manager and general contractor: the difference is who holds the risk
On a public project the delivery method is chosen before anyone is hired, it must be justified as the best value in writing, and the scoring has to be published. On a private project the owner can choose freely, and should choose on purpose.
Construction manager-agent
Represents the owner in a fiduciary capacity, manages multiple prime contracts, and by statute may not self-perform, may not be party to a construction subcontract, and may not be required to bond the work2. The owner keeps the construction risk and the direct relationships with the trades.
Construction manager-at-risk
Serves as the general contractor and assumes the risk of construction at the contracted price2. On public work the CMAR must publicly advertise for bids or proposals on every major element of the work, and may perform a package itself only by bidding it in the same manner as every other trade contractor and being judged the best value2.
Where IRONWILL sits
On site-driven private work we usually self-perform the earthwork and manage the trades around it, which is the at-risk shape. Where an owner wants an agent, we manage without holding the trade contracts. On public work we hold whichever role the entity's chosen delivery method allows, and the table below is how those methods are defined.
| Method | Statute | How the contractor is chosen | Who carries the construction risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitive bidding | Sec. 2269.101 | Award to the lowest responsible bidder after public advertisement | The contractor, at the bid price |
| Competitive sealed proposals | Sec. 2269.151 | Ranked on published weighted criteria, then negotiated; on a civil works project price must carry at least half the weight unless the governing body finds a lower weight, never under 36.9 percent, is in the public interest | The general contractor |
| Construction manager-agent | Sec. 2269.201 | Selected on qualifications to manage the owner's separate prime contracts | The owner; the agent may not self-perform, subcontract or bond the work |
| Construction manager-at-risk | Sec. 2269.251 | One-step or two-step proposals; fees may not be requested in step one of a two-step process | The CMAR, at the contracted or guaranteed maximum price |
| Design-build | Sec. 2269.301 | One contract for design and construction; the building subchapter excludes roads, drainage projects and other civil engineering work | The design-build firm |
| Job order contracting | Sec. 2269.401 | Indefinite-quantity contracts for recurring minor work on facilities; also excludes civil engineering construction | The job order contractor |
Whatever the method, the entity must consider price, experience and reputation, quality, safety record, proposed personnel and financial capability2, publish the weighted value of each criterion before proposals are received, and make the evaluations public within seven days of award2.
What we manage, and what each item means in practice
One accountable point of contact
A single manager, on site, from preconstruction through closeout. Questions get an answer from someone who was standing on the pad that morning.
Schedule and sequencing
The critical path built from real earthwork durations, with the drying time, testing turnaround and weather allowance that a clay site actually consumes, and float protected where the ground is least predictable.
Trade coordination and handoffs
Every transition between scopes written as an acceptance criterion: an elevation, a tolerance, a test result and a document, so the next crew mobilizes to ground that is proven ready.
Quality control and testing coordination
Work checked against the plans and the specification, the independent laboratory scheduled ahead of the work, and no lift covered until its report is in hand.
Scope and change control
Scope tracked against the contract documents, changes documented while the decision still exists, and the owner told what a change does to the schedule before it is authorized.
Reporting to the owner
Plain-language reporting on progress, open items, decisions required and what happens next, kept current so the monthly meeting confirms what the owner already knows.
Every handoff is a test with a written pass mark
On a site-driven project the schedule rarely fails inside a trade. It fails at the transfers: mass grade to utilities, utilities to fine grade, fine grade to foundations, subgrade to paving. At each one a crew leaves and another arrives expecting a specific condition, and the only question that matters is whether that condition was ever written down.
The building code already treats fill the way we treat a handoff. Under the 2021 International Building Code the owner, not the contractor, employs the approved agencies that perform special inspections, and during fill placement that inspection is continuous: the inspector verifies materials, procedures, densities and lift thicknesses against the approved geotechnical report as the lifts go in, and the subgrade is inspected before the first lift is placed3. The agency's reports go to the building official and to the design professional in responsible charge, and a discrepancy goes to the contractor for correction at once3. An acceptance criterion at a handoff is that same logic applied to every transfer on the site, not only the ones the code names.
A written acceptance criterion at every scope transition
Density and moisture reports in hand before any lift is covered
Elevations checked by the surveyor, not assumed from the model
Utility as-builts confirmed before fine grading starts
Trades mobilized against readiness, not against the calendar
Weather and drying time carried in the earthwork durations
Verification is what separates management from supervision
Anyone can watch work happen. Management means knowing what the specification and the code require, checking the work against them, and holding the record that proves it when someone asks a year later. Texas law puts several of those records in the manager's hands whether or not the contract mentions them.
Independent testing
On public work the governmental entity must provide or contract for construction materials engineering, testing and inspection independently of the contractor, the construction manager-at-risk or the design-build firm2, and the building code requires the owner or the owner's agent, other than the contractor, to employ the special inspection agencies3. We schedule that laboratory, track its results, and rework what fails before it is buried.
Submittals and RFIs
In Texas a plan, specification or report issued for a project must carry the seal of the licensed engineer who issued it, and a public official may accept construction documents only when they bear that seal4. A request for information is how a field condition gets back to the engineer of record for a sealed answer. Most field improvisation is an RFI that was never written.
Permits and licensed trades
Texas licenses electricians, plumbers and air conditioning contractors under their own chapters of the Occupations Code567; there is no equivalent chapter for general contractors or construction managers, so registration, permits and inspections are the city's. Knowing which apply before mobilization is the difference between an inspection and a delay.
Documentation
Daily reports, photographs, test results, change records and as-builts, kept as the project runs. On a public job the contractor and every subcontractor must also keep a record of each worker's name, occupation and actual wages paid, open to the public body's inspection8.
The roles stay separate on purpose. We are the construction manager, not the engineer of record and not the testing laboratory. The engineer designs and seals; the laboratory tests and reports; we make sure their requirements are met in the field and documented as it happens. Where it helps, that starts with site analysis before anything is committed to.
How we run a site-driven project
Most of the management happens before mobilization. The decisions below are made in order, and each one closes a question that would otherwise be argued in the field.
Sequence and handoff planning
The construction sequence built with an acceptance criterion at every transition, and durations for grading, drying, testing and weather taken from what the ground does rather than what the calendar wants.
Mobilization and controls
Permits confirmed, stormwater coverage in place with the operator roles assigned10, erosion controls installed, the testing laboratory engaged, and the reporting rhythm started before the first machine moves.
Active oversight
Daily presence on site: progress against the schedule, the trades working that week coordinated, and issues settled at the level they occur. Under OSHA's construction standard the employer must provide for frequent and regular inspections of the job site, materials and equipment by competent persons it designates11, and a competent person is one who can identify existing and predictable hazards and has the authority to correct them at once12.
Quality verification and change control
Work checked against plans and specifications, every test tracked to closure, and each change documented and approved while the decision still exists rather than reconciled at the end.
Closeout and handoff
Punch list resolved, the final special inspection report and test records assembled3, as-builts and warranties delivered, and the project handed to the owner or into its next phase with nothing outstanding.
What good management buys, and what the law makes it responsible for
The value sits in what does not happen: the rework caught at inspection instead of under the slab, the change documented in week three instead of disputed in month nine, the trade that did not mobilize into a site that was not ready. None of it appears as a line item, which is why management is the easiest scope to underfund and the most expensive one to get wrong.
Some of it is statutory. A private owner must pay a proper payment request within 35 days, a contractor must pass a subcontractor's share on within seven days of receiving it, and an overdue amount accrues interest at one and one-half percent per month13; a governmental entity's payment is overdue on the 31st day, or the 46th where its governing body meets monthly or less often, and a vendor must pay its subcontractors within ten days of being paid14. Through the work and for 30 days after completion an owner must reserve ten percent of the contract price, and a claimant's lien on those reserved funds is perfected by filing within 30 days15. A manager who does not track those clocks is not managing the money.
Schedule protected at the transitions, not only within the trades
Rework found at inspection instead of after it is covered
Changes documented while there is still a decision to make
One accountable party instead of routed responsibility
A record that holds up years after closeout
Payment, retainage and lien clocks tracked, not discovered
Have a project that needs someone accountable?
Send the scope, the schedule you are working to and where the project stands today. We will tell you plainly whether it needs construction management, whether the earthwork durations are realistic, and where the schedule is most likely to slip.
Where site-driven management earns its keep
We are most useful where the ground sets the critical path. If your schedule runs through clearing, grading, utilities coordination and pad readiness, that is work we know from performing it.
Commercial developments
Retail, office, medical and mixed-use sites where site work, utilities and vertical construction have to be sequenced against one another and against an opening date.
Public and municipal work
Multi-phase construction
Projects built in stages, where one phase is occupied or under construction while the earthwork for the next is still moving.
Infrastructure improvements
Roadway, drainage and utility scopes built to an inspected standard, with the documentation trail a public owner will audit.
Redevelopment
Sites with existing structures, live utilities and unknowns, where the order of demolition and clearing decides when everything else can begin.
Earthwork-driven builds
Any project where the site is the long pole: large cut and fill, difficult soils, constrained access, or a drainage design that has to be right the first time.
How we approach management
Earthwork-first perspective
We know what the ground takes because we move it ourselves, on our own equipment.
Handoffs as tests
Every transition has a written pass mark before the next trade is called.
Accountability you can point to
Defined responsibilities, decisions made on site, and a record of both.
Execution over paperwork
The documentation exists to keep work moving and to prove it later, not for its own sake.
Construction management across Texas and Oklahoma, from Dallas-Fort Worth
We manage commercial, industrial, multifamily and municipal projects across Texas and Oklahoma, from our base in Dallas, with the people who self-perform the earthwork on the site, not reporting on it from somewhere else.
If the project is in the metroplex or the counties around it, ask. That is the area our superintendents cover.
Project location, type and approximate size
Current stage: preconstruction, active or in trouble
The schedule you are working to
Which scopes are already under contract
What is not going the way you expected
Construction management FAQ
What is construction management?
A professional service that manages a project's schedule, cost, quality, safety, scope and function for the owner1. On site work that means controlling the earthwork sequence, the testing and the handoffs that every later trade depends on.
What is the difference between a construction manager and a general contractor?
Risk. A general contractor assumes the risk of building the facility at the contracted price2. A construction manager acting as the owner's agent manages the owner's separate contracts and carries no construction risk; under Texas public procurement law it may not even self-perform or bond the work2.
What is the difference between CM as agent and CM at risk?
Under Government Code Chapter 2269 a construction manager-agent represents the owner as a fiduciary and manages multiple prime contracts, while a construction manager-at-risk is the general contractor, delivering at a contracted or guaranteed maximum price and publicly procuring its trade packages2.
Do I need a licensed construction manager in Texas?
When should a construction manager be brought onto a project?
Before the delivery method is chosen and before the schedule is committed. On public work the governing body must determine, before advertising, which method offers the best value and must publish the weighted selection criteria2; on private work the same decisions are simply made without the paperwork, and they still decide the outcome.
What does a construction manager do day to day?
Walks the site, checks progress against the sequence, coordinates the trades working that week, resolves questions before they become RFIs and RFIs before they become delays, schedules the laboratory, records what happened, and reports to the owner. The visible part is the walking. The value is in what gets caught.
Who pays for testing and inspection on a Texas project?
On public work the governmental entity must provide or contract for materials engineering, testing and inspection independently of the contractor2. Under the building code the owner or the owner's agent, other than the contractor, employs the special inspection agencies3. Either way the laboratory does not work for the crew whose lifts it is testing.
Who does the testing and inspection?
The owner's independent laboratory performs density, moisture, concrete and materials testing, and the city's building official performs code inspections in addition to the special inspections3. We coordinate both and track every result to closure, and we do not test our own work.
Can you take over a project that is already in trouble?
Yes, and it is a common reason owners call. The first step is an honest position: where the schedule really is, what has been documented, what changes are open, which payment and retainage clocks are running1315, and what can still be recovered. That assessment sometimes says things an owner does not want to hear, which is the reason to get it.
Why does an earthwork contractor offer construction management?
Because on a site-driven project the earthwork is the critical path, and it is the scope most often scheduled by someone who has never run it. We know what mass grading takes in a wet spring on clay, what a failed density test does to a pour date, and what a pad has to be before it is released. That is a narrow specialty, and it is where we are most useful.
Sources
Every number and every rule on this page is cited here. Reviewed September 17, 2026.
- What is Construction Management?Construction Management Association of AmericaThe definition of construction management as management of schedule, cost, quality, safety, scope and function, and the Standards of Practice organized around those six areas.
- Government Code Chapter 2269, Contracting and Delivery Procedures for Construction ProjectsTexas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative CouncilCompetitive bidding (Sec. 2269.101), competitive sealed proposals and the weight on price (2269.151, 2269.153), construction manager-agent as a fiduciary that may not self-perform, subcontract or bond (2269.201 to 2269.204), construction manager-at-risk and its public procurement of trade work (2269.251, 2269.255), design-build and job order contracting and their civil works exclusions (2269.301, 2269.302, 2269.401, 2269.402), selection criteria and the published weighting (2269.055, 2269.056), and independent testing and inspection (2269.058).
- 2021 International Building Code, Chapter 17, Special Inspections and TestsInternational Code Council, as published in the UpCodes Texas library, 2021Section 1704.2 (the owner, not the contractor, employs the approved agencies), 1704.2.4 (reports to the building official and the design professional, discrepancies to the contractor, a final report), and Table 1705.6 (continuous inspection of fill placement, periodic inspection of the subgrade, excavation depth and bearing materials).
- Occupations Code Chapter 1001, Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land SurveyorsTexas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative CouncilSec. 1001.301 (license required to practice engineering), 1001.401 (the seal on every plan, specification or report issued for a project) and 1001.402 (public officials may accept only sealed engineering documents).
- Occupations Code Chapter 1305, ElectriciansTexas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative CouncilState licensing of electrical work.
- Occupations Code Chapter 1301, PlumbersTexas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative CouncilState licensing of plumbing.
- Occupations Code Chapter 1302, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration ContractorsTexas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative CouncilState licensing of air conditioning and refrigeration contracting.
- Government Code Chapter 2258, Prevailing Wage RatesTexas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative CouncilApplies to public work including excavation (Sec. 2258.002); workers paid not less than the prevailing rate (2258.021); the contractor's and subcontractor's wage records open to inspection (2258.024).
- Government Code Chapter 2253, Public Work Performance and Payment BondsTexas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative CouncilSec. 2253.021: a performance bond on a public work contract over one hundred thousand dollars and a payment bond over twenty-five thousand dollars, or over fifty thousand dollars where the entity is a municipality, each in the amount of the contract and executed by a corporate surety.
- Construction General Permit TXR150000, TPDES General Permit, Part I Section B, DefinitionsTexas Commission on Environmental Quality, 2023Primary operator (operational control over plans and specifications, or day-to-day operational control of SWP3 activities) and secondary operator (typically the owner), and the requirement that each be covered.
- 29 CFR 1926.20, General safety and health provisionsOccupational Safety and Health AdministrationParagraph (b): the employer's accident prevention program must provide for frequent and regular job site inspections by designated competent persons, and only employees qualified by training or experience may operate equipment.
- 29 CFR 1926.32, DefinitionsOccupational Safety and Health AdministrationParagraph (f), the definition of competent person, and (m), the definition of qualified.
- Property Code Chapter 28, Prompt Payment to Contractors and SubcontractorsTexas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative CouncilSec. 28.001 (improvement includes excavating, clearing, grading and filling), 28.002 (the owner's 35 days and the contractor's seven days) and 28.004 (interest of one and one-half percent per month).
- Government Code Chapter 2251, Payment for Goods and ServicesTexas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative CouncilSec. 2251.021 (a governmental entity's payment is overdue on the 31st day, or the 46th where the governing body meets monthly or less often) and 2251.022 (a vendor pays its subcontractors within ten days).
- Property Code Chapter 53, Mechanic's, Contractor's, or Materialman's LienTexas Constitution and Statutes, Texas Legislative CouncilSec. 53.101 (the owner reserves ten percent of the contract price during the work and for 30 days after completion) and 53.103 (a claimant's lien on the reserved funds, perfected by filing within 30 days).