Yihao Zhou

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Academic Credentials

M.S., Civil Engineering, Purdue University, 2016
B.A., Construction Engineering and Management, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2015

Professional Honors

SIGMA LAMBDA CHI Honor Society, 2014

Languages

Chinese

Mr. Zhou is a member of Exponent's Construction Consulting practice with over six years of experience in interstate highway widening projects, paving operations, and transportation program management in the heavy civil construction industry. His advisory experience includes organizational assessments and implementation of programs to improve efficiency and transparency for construction companies. He has experience managing all aspects of a project from initiation through execution and project closeout.

Mr. Zhou's operations experience in construction management consists of project management, logistics & process improvement, quality control & assurance, schedule preparation and maintenance, change order management, project budget control, and dispute resolution. His preconstruction experience includes estimating, bidding, subcontractor selection, contract negotiation, contract management, and value engineering.

During his career, Mr. Zhou has gained a positive reputation for his resilience and problem-solving skills. Before joining Exponent, Mr. Zhou worked for one of the largest heavy civil contractors in the Mid-Atlantic region. He has filled roles as a field engineer, project engineer, estimator, and project manager while working on various projects valued from $4 million to $130 million.

Government Contracts Management — Mr. Zhou bid and managed government paving contracts involving interstate, primary, and secondary roadway work in the northern Virginia region. He analyzed and managed project scopes, developed project schedules, reported financial performance, and settled construction claims. He acted as a liaison to maintain subcontractor relationships and led the resolution of all project-related disputes between the owner, subcontractors, and general public.
Preconstruction Services — Mr. Zhou generated bid proposals for a large construction corporation. He created reports, performed technical analysis and quantity take-offs, set up the budget & baseline schedule, and assisted superintendents in site evaluation, recommendation, and selection. Preconstruction services were administered on government and commercial paving projects.
Transportation Program Assessments and Management — Mr. Zhou provided project advisory services to a large construction corporation's transportation department. He led and managed the conversion program of the traditional trucking platform to a cloud-based system to improve transportation program efficiency, operational productivity, and information transparency of over 16,000 trucks yearly. In addition to the program conversion, Mr. Zhou provided preventive operation suggestions to six different teams, established weekly performance reports on cost control, led cross-functional teams to improve operating methods, and presented data to the senior leadership group. He also negotiated and collaborated with multiple external providers to establish a cost structure and dispatch system to support paving projects in the region.
Highway Construction Project Management — Mr. Zhou assisted project managers in generating monthly forecasts for an interstate widening project comprising nine bridges and 28-lane-miles of roadway. Mr. Zhou performed cost analysis, optimized performance reporting, proper invoices coding, and precise quantity claiming of fourteen crews between roadway construction and paving operation to increase project-wide equipment utilization and control equipment and trucking costs.
Quality Control Services — Mr. Zhou served as QA/QC engineer on a large interstate widening design-build project. He created, coordinated, and managed multiple quality control workbooks, provided change order management, and managed the disputes of project deficiencies.

Project Experience

Prior Experiences