By Ben Ross, Director of Preconstruction, Burkey Construction and GRCA Team of Expert for Commercial Construction & Sidney Goodman, Marketing Coordinator, Burkey Construction
When you hear the word “construction,” images of large equipment, soaring steel frames and brightly colored hard hats certainly come to mind. But the physical stage of construction taking place once shovels hit the dirt is the result of months of behind-the-scenes planning, budgets, approvals and coordination referred to in the industry as preconstruction.
Preconstruction’s primary purpose is to create a seamless transition from the early idea of a project through design and, ultimately, into the physical construction of the building while creating efficiencies in design, budget, schedule and constructability. This process takes the total project and breaks it down into the crucial steps that must be accomplished to minimize risks and ensure a project has a successful start.
Assembling the Right Team
In our experience, it is critical for a successful project to have a strong owner, architect and contractor coming together at the beginning of project planning. Often in construction, it is assumed that the general contractor isn’t needed until all of the plans are completed and the project is ready to go out for bid. However, doing this leaves out a critical team member, and the designers suffer without the voice responsible for managing budget, schedule and constructability during the project.
Showing the Value of Real-World Information
We were once awarded a job where, after completing our initial preconstruction estimate, the client realized that they didn’t have a full budget outlined. They were missing several soft costs for things like technology and furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) because their team stakeholders were siloed into their respective spheres—design, engineering, etc.
A good general contractor lives in the center of these spheres. We understand not just the vertical costs of construction, but what it will take to encompass everything from design to FF&E to AV/IT to security systems. While it is typical for owners to hold these types of contracts, our job as the general contractor is to anticipate what these third-party vendors will need as the project nears completion so their scope aligns with the drawings and overall project plan. With this knowledge, we create budgets for clients that give them an “all-in” number for their project, encompassing each area of spending.
Bringing a general contractor to the team early in the design process gives the client and design team access to accurate, real-world information regarding costs, lead time of equipment and constructability. While reasonable assumptions can be made through general market knowledge, clients can have greater confidence in the totality of their budget when it is based on day-to-day construction knowledge and data.
Having the general contractor involved from the beginning provides the design team with real-time feedback as they create the drawings. A skilled general contractor will provide cost and constructability information to the design team in their preliminary stages, as well as value engineering, which is the process of reviewing proposed materials with the intention of reducing costs without compromising quality. This hand-in-hand approach allows decisions to be made during the design process instead of after the final bid, which prevents costly design revisions due to unknown material acquisition problems, lead time issues and delays in construction.
Cementing a Project Schedule
Increasingly in construction, projects have hard turnover deadlines, in which the client seeks to move into the space almost immediately after substantial completion. The client needs to know not just that their general contractor is capable of breaking ground on schedule, but that they can bring a building fully online by the correct date. A general contractor is responsible for driving a project schedule, but getting their input early on ensures that the schedule is truly attainable.
A successful preconstruction process will minimize risk and provide answers to issues that would potentially delay the turnover date if left unaddressed. Besides the bare bones of vertical construction, things like fabrication processes and procurement can greatly impact a project’s timeline. Without ground-level input, these items may be overlooked in a preliminary design schedule.
Creating a Smooth Transition
Once the preconstruction phase is completed, the goal is to have a seamless hand-off into the construction phase. This is infinitely easier when the general contractor has been involved from the start of preconstruction. The chances of information loss, finger-pointing and miscommunications are drastically reduced when the general contractor is in the room for critical planning discussions.
Involving a general contractor at the beginning of project planning is an essential step when setting a job up for smooth, successful construction. When the preconstruction project runs in concurrence with design, the groundwork is laid for a client to put shovels in the ground with a project budget they can trust, practical design drawings for construction and a schedule they can depend on when planning for day one occupancy after project completion.
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