ABSTRACT:
The AEI Student Competition is an annual event that pushes students in the disciplines of engineering and construction management to collaborate and demonstrate creative solutions to the challenges presented.
This year, the competition is focused on the new Texas Tech Sports Performance Sports Facility located in Lubbock, Texas, where they tore down the existing building and are in the process of completing the new facility.
Instead of recreating the plans given, we designed a brand new building to meet the project requirements, which included a $48 million budget and a 34-month construction duration. As the Construction Manager for the project, I primarily used DProfiler to design and budget the project.
The construction submittals are as follows: Site Specific Safety Plan, Site Logistics, Jurisdictional Requirements, Project Delivery Method, Project Phasing, Critical Path Schedule, and Uniformat Level 1, 2, and 3 estimates, Value Engineering and Sustainability, Constructability Challenges, and Life Cycle Cost Justifications.
THE PROCESS
As mentioned above, the project initially started in CM 415 with Greg Starzyk when we were to complete a list of objectives based on the AEI Student Design Competition. Originally, for the purpose of the competition, the design that these objectives were to be based off was the current design for the new Texas Tech Sports Performance Facility in Lubbock, TX.
The competition program required us to use this design in order to complete the submittals listed on the competition program. However, for the purpose of the class, all three teachers, which were representative of each major, decided that we would get much more out of the class by designing a brand new building based on the parameters given in the competition program.
The Process.
The Program:
The construction industry is very much driven by computer-based programs that allow us to design, budget and schedule a project, essentially telling a complex story. The main program that I used for this project was BeckTech’s DProfiler, which was a program introduced in CM 415 and taught directly by Greg.
Although I had access to a Revit model, creating the new design in DProfiler was of utmost importance because of the value in its costing database. To describe DProfiler as straightforward would be a bit of a stretch, and it didn’t help that some of our building facades included inclined walls, parapet walls, and multi-directional roofs, so modeling the building required much time and effort.
DELIVERABLES
As I have mentioned many times, the competition required a list of submittals based on which area you were planning to compete in. Most of the submittals required for the competition were challenging, though some were definitely much more time consuming, including the budget and the schedule.
Although I know this project will not ever see an owner’s desk, it was nice to be a part of the process which I learned so much about. Below is my list of deliverables for the competition program:
- Site Specific Safety Program,
- Constructability Challenges,
- Site Logistics,
- Jurisdictional Requirements,
- Project Phasing,
- Project Specific Delivery Method,
- Critical Path Schedule,
- Uniformat Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 estimates,
- Life-Cycle Cost Justifications,
- Value Engineering and Sustainability.
LESSONS LEARNED
The biggest lesson that I learned while completing this project was that completing these submittals was much more difficult than anticipated, namely because most companies have a template of some sort to work from. During my internships, I never was asked to develop a site safety plan, or think about how the project would need to be phased to be completed efficiently and on-time.
When we are hired on at a construction company, many of these practices and policies are already well grounded in the company and established, so all you would need to do is tailor these practices to a specific project. Creating a site-specific safety program from scratch took a lot more thought on what would need to be addressed.
NEW KNOWLEDGE
From working through this project, I can definitely attest to and promote working with other students in different majors and disciplines. As construction managers, we will be directly working with engineers and architects in many of the projects that we will be on, so starting that exposure early would be invaluable.
The beginnings of this project started with me being paired with another construction manager as well as architects and architectural engineers. This was something completely new to all of us, but I felt that it was very important to learn how different disciplines think and act.
It created a realistic environment of what it will be like to work with these professionals in the future, and be able to see the other side of construction in the aesthetic and structural design. Compromise was something that we all had to learn in order to make the relationship work, especially when so many different types of personalities and thought-processes were clashing.
Source: California Polytechnic State University
Author: Jacob G. Kockrow