Five Strategies to Streamline Construction

Keith Simpson, Principal at Bohler

Through this article, Keith Simpson outlines essential strategies to mitigate common construction delays and enhance project efficiency. Drawing on over two decades of experience, Simpson emphasizes the importance of thorough site civil due diligence to address potential issues before construction begins. He offers actionable advice, including utility profiling to avoid conflicts with underground utilities, conducting early geotechnical due diligence to identify obstacles, and producing clear, detailed construction documents to reduce errors and change orders.

When it comes to construction for land development projects, there are a variety of factors that could result in snags and delays. The good news is that developers can take action to mitigate construction delays before a project is even designed. The biggest key to staying on track is thorough site civil due diligence.

"Quality construction documents provide clarity and reduce the need for constant revisions. When contractors understand the plans from the start, it minimizes errors and streamlines the construction process."

At Bohler, we design with constructability in mind, which streamlines the bidding and construction process. Sometimes, slowdowns in the field are inescapable, but effective due diligence raises awareness of potential construction challenges and can help minimize delays.

Actionable Tips to Streamline Construction

While some uncertainty below ground is inevitable, most challenges either result from unknown existing utilities or different soils than shown in the geotechnical report.

Here are five actionable tips for mitigating snags once shovels hit the ground based on my experience managing site civil engineering design projects over the past 24 years.

1. Utility Profiling

Between landscaping, water, sanitary utilities, stormwater materials, fiber, gas, electricity and more, designers have a lot to consider. I recommend involving a utility specialist to examine the existing utilities on the site. They can access up-to-date plans from electric and fiber companies, which are more reliable and provide a clear picture of where utilities are located on the site. Underground fiber cables are essential to locate before construction begins because they are hard to find and expensive to fix.

Utility profiling helps identify the depths and intersections of underground utilities, ensuring that crossings are free of conflicts and objects are far enough apart. This critical step helps avoid time-consuming change orders or the need to modify plans on-site.

2. Geotechnical Due Diligence Early On

Geotechnical due diligence is also essential early to clarify other obstacles like groundwater, buried objects, rocks and more. While it may seem expensive, it can help avoid delays and costly adjustments once construction begins. It also helps inform projected costs based on conceptual grading plans, soil considerations and earthwork – which can all affect design.

3. Quality Documentation

Construction documents that are detailed yet easy to understand provide peace of mind for contractors and owners. Buried utilities and other obstacles are presented in multiple ways, allowing for clarity. Contractors can, therefore, consider constructability before they begin, consult plans at any time and project more accurate costs and timelines. Quality construction documents also typically mean contractors don’t need to ask as many questions and submit fewer requests for information (RFIs) or change orders.

For the projects that Bohler is involved in, quality documents lead the way: clear, legible, well-thought-out designs mean that there’s less room for error.

4. In-Person, On-Site Kickoff Meetings

With the most precise possible directions, contractors’ jobs should go much smoother. Kickoff meetings with contractors that are in person and on site are important so that the site civil engineer can go through the construction documents before construction begins. 

Contractors can get all their questions answered and the entire team can head into the construction phase with confidence.

My colleague Ben Plumb, Project Manager in New York, said, “It’s much better to have these discussions during the kickoff meetings, rather than halfway through construction, when not having information may be detrimental to making quick progress.”

5. In-Depth Local Knowledge

Having extensive knowledge and understanding of your jurisdiction’s process can play a critical role in streamlining construction and permits. Additionally, having trusted local relationships – such as with building inspectors, engineering departments, regional municipalities and counties and public transport – especially in some of the harder-to-develop areas in the country, means we can rely on local expertise.

At Bohler, we can help ensure we have what the client needs and what the jurisdiction needs through our network of experts in specific industries from various offices.

Resolving Difficulties Quickly

Despite all of these efforts to minimize obstacles and streamline construction, unforeseen delays are still sometimes inevitable. But your approach when these things come up matters. Here’s how I recommend to resolve issues quickly:

    •  Evaluate timelines to see if redesigning can avoid the area.

    •  Try to reuse as many structures as possible.

    •  Implement what is already on site.

    •  Plan to minimize the impact on the contract when ordering new materials.

    •  Form a unified approach with the contractor.

If the site civil engineering consultant can form a unified approach to challenges with the contractor, owners and developers can rest assured that the proposed solution is the best one.

My team has successfully used these strategies to minimize interruptions and keep projects moving forward through construction in the fastest way possible.