Realistic Review Windows by Project Type
The EOR's contract typically allows 10–14 business days per review cycle for standard commercial projects. Healthcare, government, and complex structural projects often allow 21 days. Some EORs turn comments in 5 days; others use the full contractual window. Unless you have prior experience with this EOR on a similar project, use 14 business days as your planning assumption — and build in two full review cycles minimum.
How Many Review Cycles to Expect
One review cycle rarely produces 'Approved' status. Most projects go through two cycles: the first cycle catches connection type decisions, scope items missed, and coordination conflicts; the second catches drawing format issues and minor revisions from the first round. Complex seismic, healthcare, or transfer-structure projects regularly require three. Each additional cycle adds 4–6 weeks to the submittal phase.
Building the Approval Cycle Into the Schedule
Show the approval cycle explicitly in the project schedule — not as a single 'EOR review' bar, but as a submittal date, a review window, a comment receipt date, a revision duration, and a resubmittal date. This makes the timeline legible to all parties and creates a record if the EOR exceeds the contractual review window. When the EOR is late, that delay is documented and becomes the basis for a schedule extension claim if needed.
The Anatomy of a Fully Loaded Submittal Schedule
A properly constructed steel detailing schedule for a two-cycle approval process looks like this: model build (3–8 weeks), internal QA (1 week), first submittal to EOR, Cycle 1 review (2 weeks), comment receipt and review (2–3 days), revision work (1–2 weeks), second submittal, Cycle 2 review (2 weeks), final approval, fabrication release. Total elapsed time from model start to fabrication release: 10–16 weeks for a standard commercial project. Fabricators who plan only for the model build phase and show fabrication starting 5 weeks after kickoff are systematically understating the schedule.
- Model build: 3–8 weeks depending on tonnage and complexity
- Internal QA/QC: 1 week (do not skip or compress)
- Cycle 1 EOR review: 2 weeks (10 business days minimum)
- Detailer revision after Cycle 1 comments: 1–2 weeks
- Cycle 2 EOR review: 2 weeks
- Final approval receipt and fabrication release: 1–3 business days
How to Accelerate the Approval Cycle Legitimately
The EOR's review time is largely outside the detailer's control, but there are legitimate strategies that reduce it. First: pre-submittal coordination calls with the EOR before the formal submittal — walking through the connection approach, any non-standard conditions, and any items requiring judgment calls — allow the EOR to form opinions before drawings arrive and reduces the number of Cycle 1 comments significantly. Second: submitting high-quality drawings with complete revision clouds, a comment log from the previous cycle, and a summary cover letter directing the reviewer to the highest-priority items reduces the effort required per sheet. Third: submit the easiest, most standard portion of the project first — allowing the EOR to approve and release that portion while more complex items are still in review.
Staged Approvals for Phased Projects
On fast-track or phased projects, staged approval allows the EOR to approve early release packages before the full drawing set is complete. This is only possible if the early packages are truly independent of later work — anchor bolt plans, for example, can be approved separately because their design does not depend on connection details still in development. Staged approval requires explicit EOR agreement and typically requires the detailer to document what is and is not included in each staged submittal. The EOR's stamp on Stage 1 does not imply approval of any item not included in that stage.
When the EOR Takes Longer Than Contracted
When the EOR exceeds the contractual review window — typically defined in the project specifications or the owner-engineer agreement — the fabricator and detailer have specific documentation and escalation obligations. First, send a written notice to the GC on day 1 of the overrun, citing the contractual review period and the specific submittal package. Second, document the production impact: which drawings are being held, which fabrication release is delayed, and what the cost-per-day of the delay is. Third, escalate to the owner if the GC does not produce a response from the EOR within 3 business days of the notice. Most EORs respond promptly when a formal notice arrives — the notice communicates the cost consequence of further delay in language that is harder to ignore than an informal email.
The Cost of the Approval Cycle — and How to Quantify It in Your Schedule
The financial cost of the EOR review cycle is often invisible until it hits the schedule. A fabrication shop with committed crew and booked crane time generates carrying costs during every week of forced idle time waiting for approved drawings. On a 20,000-square-foot commercial project with a 20-person fabrication team, two extra weeks of EOR review time represent significant unrecovered overhead — labor, facilities, material storage — that was not in the original bid. These costs are only recoverable if they were anticipated, documented as a risk in the contract, and attributed to a specific cause when they materialize. Build the approval cycle cost into your project financial model before the project starts: calculate the daily overhead rate for the period from completion of detailing to fabrication start, and identify who bears that cost if the review cycle extends beyond the planned window. That calculation, done before kickoff, is the difference between a recoverable claim and an absorbed loss.
- Calculate daily shop overhead for the period between drawing completion and fabrication start
- Identify in the contract who bears extended overhead during EOR review overruns
- Include review cycle risk in your fabrication bid contingency if EOR responsiveness is unknown
- Document overhead accumulation daily once the review window is exceeded
- Present overhead claims in the same format as a CPM delay analysis — milestone dates, planned vs. actual, daily cost rate