Some commercial real estate developers work primarily with architects and engineers to establish a project’s scope and expected cost, leaving the selection of a general contractor or project manager until they are nearly ready to break ground. And by following this traditional approach, they may be leaving money on the table.
A better practice is to engage contractors during project planning, industry experts advise. That’s because experienced contractors can provide practical insight into pricing and availability of materials and labor, informing critical planning decisions. Those same builders can be a sounding board for site civil engineers mapping out site preparation, utility installation, access and sequencing for the various tradespeople working on a project.
“Involving a general contractor early is particularly beneficial for large-scale or phased construction projects,” says Daniel Hines, a principal in Bohler’s Charlotte office. “It enables us to approach the design more strategically, reduce costs and deliver more accurate timelines.”
Duffey Southeast
“The overall goal of getting a general contractor and an engineer working together is to maintain your schedule and your budget,” agrees Jeff Mitchell, director in the Charlotte, North Carolina office of Duffey Southeast Construction Inc.
“Engineers are the experts at designing projects, but ultimately it is the contractor or subcontractor that puts them together,” he says. “Getting subcontractor input on how structures go together can keep the price where it needs to be. “When a site civil brings Duffey Southeast into a project, the firm works with them to look for ‘constructability’ issues such as long lead times to acquire materials,” Mitchell says.
“If there are tons of rocks on a site, or if we are tying into manholes that are very deep, we look for solutions to those challenges,” he says. “We help developers chart out the resources and time needed to complete various tasks and phases in a project, and our field experience can help resolve issues.”
Implementing Best Practices with Local Expertise
Contractors and subcontractors can often lead project owners to the best pricing on materials or advise them when certain products should be purchased early to compensate for long lead times. In fact, gathering subcontractor input is baked into the popular design-build process, which combines design and construction phases under a single contract. The resulting collaboration encourages cost-effective designs and accelerated project delivery.
“Usually during the design process, we put the plans out to subcontractors for cost feedback,” Mitchell says. “In a true design-build project we would do that at set points — like at 30 percent, 70 percent and 90 percent of completing the design — to make sure that we’re maintaining costs where they need to be for the particular project.”
From planning through construction, an open dialogue can enable contractors to suggest alternative approaches to various tasks that lower costs or speed project completion. By the same token, subcontractors have a finger on the pulse of seasonal fluctuations in labor and supply chains affecting their trades.
“Getting our subcontractors involved early is a huge help for us and also helps us identify any safety issues and lead times on a project,” Mitchell says.
Involving all project partners early on sets the stage for a smoother workflow and proactive problem-solving.
Internal quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) processes also keep multi-step design plans on track, explains Hines. “Conceptual plan reviews and first and final QCs are essential. We want to make sure that what’s on paper and what’s in the computer design file are both accurate. We follow those processes regardless of the project type or size.”
“We also tailor the project approach to the local jurisdiction, and every project is an opportunity to learn lessons and adjust how we work with certain agencies so we can streamline the permitting process.”
Carolina Collaboration
Seamless coordination between site civil and architectural designers, Duffey Southeast, Bohler and other project partners recently made for a smooth delivery of more than 450,000 square feet of industrial space just outside Charlotte.
The three-building project is part of North Chase at The Park, McDonald Development Co.’s state-of-the-art industrial campus in Huntersville, North Carolina. Bohler is the site civil engineer and landscape designer for the project, which will include two more phases of construction that add four more buildings and grow the industrial complex to 1.2 million square feet.
Duffey Southeast
“We’re under one contract here, but it’s really three construction projects occurring simultaneously in close proximity to each other,” says Dolph Hargis, project manager at Duffey Southeast, describing the recent completions. “Being able to coordinate construction sequences and installation of all three buildings was a major feat.”
Phase 1 required careful staging to have materials on hand as each subcontractor arrived, completed their work on one building and then moved on to the next, making way for the next crew to quickly move in for the next stage of construction. In a domino sequence of placing concrete, lifting wall panels into position by crane, installing structural steel, roofing, electrical and other components, the teams erected 278 concrete tilt-up panels in a little more than seven days.
Hargis credits Bohler for being flexible and working with its construction partners to complete the work with speed and efficiency.
“Working with true professionals makes the job easier on everybody, and the Bohler team are true professionals,” he says. “This great accomplishment was a team effort by our supervision and our trade partners. We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Hines says overlapping jurisdictions added to the complexity of the project’s design and permitting. The team also sought to incorporate efficiencies into construction of future phases by designing some improvements, such as stormwater management features, to serve the larger development.
“The goal is to balance the site earthwork to the extent that we can as well as having the stormwater management, quality considerations and storage features work in concert with each other to address the entire site’s requirements, instead of just building by building or parcel by parcel,” he says.
Contractor suggestions can help designers find solutions to concerns that arise in the permitting process, and often propose timely actions or cost-efficient workarounds to resolve jobsite challenges, Hines explains.
For example, Duffey Southeast’s experience with post-pandemic supply chains suggested that acquiring steel and electrical supplies for North Chase at The Park would be a challenge, so the contractor purchased those items well in advance to preserve the construction schedule.
He advises project leaders to be amenable to contractor input and experience.
“The exciting and collaborative part about engineering design is that there is usually more than one solution to a particular site’s challenges. Through open communication with the contractor, we can work together to identify an approach that’s both cost-effective and efficient for that specific scenario,” Hines says. “Every project is an opportunity to learn, get creative and, ultimately, deliver value by keeping the work on time and within budget.”
— By Matt Hudgins. Bohler is a content partner of REBusinessOnline. For more articles from and news about Bohler, click here.