Full Transcript for Is the Project Constructible?

on day one. 00:01:57.439 --> 00:01:57.920 You're right. 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:04.799 And statistics say 40%, but you and I know with the experience that we have that almost every project has the same hiccup. 00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:07.599 We're now digging ground that's been dug and used prior. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:09.520 The days of open ground is done. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:14.800 Lack of constructibility on these projects today cost everybody contractor, developer, owner, everybody. 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:22.000 So not catching these things up front, not overlaying the project to see what was there before hurts the schedule and cost everybody time and money. 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:26.319 Yeah, it's it's not necessarily that the costs aren't there for the project. 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:28.159 They're just not being budgeted for, right? 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:28.960 Absolutely. 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:32.719 Some of the stuff can be caught just in the design phase of the project. 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:38.800 Not having a civil consultant with boots on the ground experience on a project from day one hurts the whole project as a whole. 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:41.840 So, Shane, what do you what do you mean when you say boots on the ground experience? 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:47.439 Well, Neil, you and I have over 60 years of experience, and we've seen, we don't know everything, but we've seen a lot. 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:50.879 We have you know, and and the boots on the ground experience is just that. 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:57.120 We've been in the trenches, we've dealt with these problems on a day-to-day basis on every single project we've done. 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:04.400 You and I have been working together now over 15 years, working up to 17 years, I think, in a few or 16 years, excuse me, in the next couple of months. 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:06.479 Name one project where this wasn't an issue. 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:08.319 Yeah, it's it's every project. 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:09.599 Recently had a project. 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:11.840 We got the job, we went out and we looked at it. 00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:16.479 And day one, with an approved set of plans, we already knew just looking at the job, it wasn't going to work. 00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:17.120 Why was that? 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:17.680 Why was it? 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:19.439 No boots on the background experience. 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:24.560 Civil engineer did a fantastic job designing the project, but didn't know overlay what was already in the ground. 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:27.280 Yeah, so so how does that happen? 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:31.520 So lack of what as built, um, locates? 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:33.120 A couple of things, right? 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:38.080 Lack of experience in the field, lack of knowledge of the utilities that are already in the ground. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:45.039 In the designing process, if they're not doing a locate on the project to see what's

existing in the ground, how can they actually design a project? 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:45.599 Right. 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:49.599 So that goes back to the start of the whole process. 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:51.199 So how do how does this start? 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:55.680 So it starts with what a concept, a design, starts with a budget. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:04:02.639 Maybe the architects, engineers are given a budget and they're trying to fit this design within that budget, right? 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:03.599 I'm I'm guessing. 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:04.080 Yes. 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:10.400 Well, but it brings to mind one of the biggest pet peeves in this vendor for me, which is low bid gets the job, right? 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:17.519 That knows every faculty of the job from engineering to general to the dirt contractor doing the work, right? 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:29.519 Right, but but let's back up to the the design stage where if if you have a limited budget to do the design, you're gonna get, are you gonna go out there and just go off as builds? 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:31.600 Are you even gonna have as builds provided? 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:33.199 Sometimes they're not provided, right? 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:36.399 If you're doing uh some road work, how about do locates? 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:37.680 Wow, that was a concept. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:41.519 Locates and then hire a contractor to go out and potholes. 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:47.199 So you got invert elevations of utilities, you know what's in the ground, then you can design the project. 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:48.079 Yeah, absolutely. 00:04:48.160 --> 00:05:01.120 I mean, it wasn't very long ago that you and I were involved in a project, and again, I'm not gonna mention names or locations, but day one we walk out on the project and they had all these saved trees, and the very first tree I looked at that was supposed to be a saved tree, was 45-degree angle over the top of the project. 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:01.279 Right. 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:03.600 You and I looked at each other, we're like, well, that's not gonna happen. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:08.240 The engineer designed it off of Google Earth, no boots on the ground, nobody walked out there and looked at it. 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:09.920 But again, why why is that happening? 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:12.800 Lack of experience, maybe the industry's changing. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:14.000 I I'm not exactly sure. 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:17.519 This is this is the frustration I think every contractor has right now. 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:23.040 Actually, maybe not the contractor as much as the owner developer, because they're now gonna get hit with the almighty extra. 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:23.439 Right. 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:26.000 Which unfortunately in our industry becomes the norm. 00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:39.839 With the consultants such as Alpine Civil Consulting, allow us to do a deep dive onto the project, say thousands of dollars by spending pennies up front with somebody to take a look at the project, see if their design, their dream is even possible. 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:40.959 If it's constructible. 00:05:41.199 --> 00:05:41.839 If it's constructible. 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:42.959 I mean, it wasn't very long ago. 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:49.759 I had a conversation with an engineer who said, Shane, I'm I want imagine I'm building this house and I want you to build the house the way I designed it. 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:51.600 I want to build the house the way you designed it. 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:53.279 I just got to make sure it's gonna stand up. 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:56.240 Well, and it's gotta fit within the project. 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:56.879 Yeah, yeah. 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:02.480 And it's it's sometimes frustrating that that we we see this time and time again, almost every single project. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:13.600 Yeah, if we could get involved early and and lay out the the issues that we see, by the time it goes to the bid build process, hopefully a lot of these issues are flushed out. 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:20.319 Not that the costs are gonna go away, but at least the owner has an idea of hey, this this is a more realistic budget for my project. 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:21.360 Yes, exactly. 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:29.439 Every time we see here's the engineer's estimate on a project, but if they haven't done a complete constructability study on the project prior to designing it, that budget's kind of not there. 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:31.759 Yeah, it kind of leaves an open door for these changes. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:48.800 And then what happens during the course of the the project, Lil Bid gets gets the work right, and then it's change order, change order, change order, which the owners the project, donors getting hit, the general contractors getting hit, the subcontractors are getting hit, everyone down the line is being asked to participate in the costs. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:51.759 The one word we can't stand is the contractor, participate. 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:58.240 Especially when when we don't have any say in the upfront design constructibility of that project. 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:01.519 Or in the back end, we don't get any profit when the project's done. 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:04.959 Our profit's in the design we do, the work we do, the job that was bid. 00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:08.319 Yeah, the quicker we can get in and out of a project, the more profitable it is. 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:09.360 Way more profitable. 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:17.519 Everybody wants to hang their hat on change orders and TM stuff, but at the end of the day, the paperwork mill that's got to go through the office eats that up alive. 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:18.319 There's no profit. 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:18.720 No. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:22.480 So Shane, we talked about where the money is being spent on these projects. 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:34.000 Seems like they're being spent starting at the bid-build process towards the end of the project or middle start, what have you, in change orders, that money should be shifted towards the beginning of the project. 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:38.160 So is it ever too early to get a civil consultant involved in these? 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:42.000 It's never too early to get a company like Alpine Civil Consulting in there. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:43.120 The earlier the better. 00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:47.680 The faster we can get in there to catch it and see design and help out where we see the need. 00:07:47.920 --> 00:08:02.160 So in our next episode, we'll deconstruct a constructability study that we put together on a local project where we go into more specifics on what we found outside of the plans, outside of the geotech reports. 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:07.680 We go into the permitting or extra permitting that was necessary for this project. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:16.079 Um, and then as well as the I shouldn't say extra cost, but the cost that wouldn't have been identified had we not done this report. 00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:17.040 Yes, exactly. 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:19.759 So until next time, I'm Jayne Crosby. 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:20.959 I'm Neil Tastad. 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:21.839 This is the dirt. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:23.040 Keep digging. 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:34.639 And just a quick reminder if you have any questions or concerns, you can reach out to us on our website or email our team and follow us on our LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social media platforms. 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:35.679 Thank you.