Multiple Prime Contracting
A delivery approach where the owner contracts directly with several prime contractors, separate general, mechanical, and electrical primes, for example, instead of one general contractor holding all the subcontracts, requiring the owner or a construction manager to coordinate directly between primes who have no contractual authority over each other.
Why it matters
Without a single general contractor responsible for the whole schedule, the owner (or whoever it hires to coordinate) inherits the job of resolving conflicts between primes that a traditional GC arrangement would normally absorb.
On a real project
A public university contracts directly with separate general, mechanical, and electrical primes for a new building, relying on its own construction manager to coordinate sequencing between the three rather than one general contractor managing all of it.
Who this matters most to
An Owner's Representative takes on the coordination role multiple prime contracting requires, since no single prime has contractual authority to resolve conflicts between the others.
Where this goes wrong
On a highway interchange project, the earthwork prime falls behind schedule, delaying the site access the paving prime needs to start its own work. Neither prime has any contractual obligation to the other, only to the owner, so the paving prime has no direct way to hold the earthwork prime accountable for the delay it's now absorbing.