CRITICAL PATH CONSTRUCTION CONSULTANTS
Steel claims & performance experts: lived experience, courtroom credibility, measurable results.
Build to Last. Ready to Defend.
Solving operational challenges through structured thinking and guiding teams through complex business problems requires thinking differently. Our focus is to fairly represent your company through litigation, settlements or negotiations while working to save your client. Our credibility comes from lived experience. Kent Schulter and Dr Tanya Knudsen have combined to support the successful navigation of a complex industry.
Who We Are
Founded in 2007, Critical Path Construction Consultants has helped Steel Subcontractors & Fabricators, General Contractors and Attorneys navigate the technical constraints of the steel business as it applies to construction claims, mediations, and arbitrations.
We have participated in more than 35 court cases as court approved structural steel expert witnesses, supported by fully documented backup and PowerPoint presentations to help settle cases of non-payment, delay, labor disruption and project interference.
What brings credibility to our testimony is “we have lived it”. Kent Schluter, Founding Member, has more than 20 years of fabrication and erection experience as an owner of both an AISC Certified Fabrication Company and a Certified Steel Erector.
This is not just hypothetical work that we present to the courts, but rather a sense of real time knowledge and passion as your advocate. We get that bad jobs happen even to good companies, and there are things beyond the control of a subcontractor.
People
A Family Disguised as a Business:
Professional development for navigating complexity and driving innovation.
FourSight
Creative Problem Solving
Process
The Systems that Fuel Growth.
Top to Bottom Consistency
Estimating
Project management
Problem Solving Certifications
Accounting
Performance
If you can measure you can manage.
Key metrics that must be measured and understood within the industry to track best practices. We bring insight from our industry and experience to your performance
Litigation
Your Steel Support Team
Whether you are an Attorney, General Contractor or Steel Subcontractor we support, clarify and defend your claim or settlement.
Document
Expert Witness
What We Do
For General Contractors
Construction projects bring a minefield of technical challenges:
Submittals & welding procedures
Change order requests
Engineering comments
Schedule impacts
For Steel Subcontractors
We believe in people and fast, efficient paths toward reasonable settlement. Most teams want to:
Protect the budget
Finish strong
Maintain relationships
For Attorneys
Steel disputes require domain expertise grounded in:
State laws
Industry terminology
AISC Code of Standard Practice
Welding & bolting specs
Our Expertise
Structural Steel Specialists
Structural steel fabrication and erection practices
Construction delay analysis
Labor disruption and productivity impacts
Project interference and coordination failures
Non-payment and contract disputes
Legal Support Services
Mediation, arbitration, and litigation support
Expert witness testimony
Detailed documentation and technical analysis
Professional presentation materials
Clear communication of complex project conditions
Business Solutions
Beyond Claims Expertise
Critical Path Construction Consultants is more than a claims expert. We have turned around steel companies suffering from a host of challenges ranging from poor accounting to lack of industry knowledge.
From Estimating Material Management, Certifications and Project Management systems, we have created a platform to tie this together to help your team be their best.
The hallmark of a strong company is the compatibility between the accounting, estimating, cost of complete, and shop performance departments. If you can measure, you can manage and your team is anxious to be recognized as the best.
Professional Development
Empowering Problem Solvers
Empowering people as problem solvers is the core of professional development. The alignment of capability and proven process with domain expertise unlocks both efficiency and innovation.
Professional development is most powerful when it recognizes people as natural problem solvers with innate preferences. Tools like FourSight reveal the diversity of how individuals and teams approach challenges.
Capacity Building for Complexity
Construction disputes rarely stem from a single event. More often, they result from a chain of technical decisions, coordination challenges, and project constraints that unfold over time.
Our structured approach follows a proven outline that applies across industries and disciplines:
- Clarifying the problem
- Generating options
- Evaluating solutions
- Implementing action
Why Work With Us
Court-approved structural steel expert witness cases
Years of real-world AISC fabrication & erection experience
Clear, data-driven narratives with complete documentation
Featured Projects
Santa Monica Office Tower
$100 million office tower project in Santa Monica, CA. Provided structural steel expert witness services and claims analysis.
Tacoma 5th Street Bridge
$22 million bridge and pedestrian overpass project in Tacoma, WA. Provided litigation support and delay analysis.