The Thursday Morning Sprint: A Lesson in Preconstruction Planning

Peter Wheatley, Director of Preconstruction, Metro-Can Construction

I have a 17-year-old son. Great kid, polite, thoughtful, and now taller than me. I’m proud of the young man he’s becoming. Like any parent, I try to pass along life lessons in ways that (hopefully) resonate. Some do. Others? Not so much.

Take Thursdays. That’s garbage day, and his weekly chore is to sort the recycling, garbage, and compost and get the bins to the curb before catching his bus. Simple, right?

Well, in theory. The job requires planning: separating items, managing overflow, and remembering which bin gets dragged to the curb when. The real challenge? Timing. He has to be out the door by 7:30 a.m. to make the bus. But somehow, every Thursday morning ends in a frenzied scramble—frantically breaking down boxes, stuffing bags into bins and sprinting to the curb, often with a banana peel trailing behind him. Why? Because prep never happens the night before.

You might be wondering: what does my son’s garbage day chaos have to do with pre-construction planning? Surprisingly, quite a lot.

Just as his Thursday success depends on a little bit of forethought, so too does a successful construction project. The often-overlooked pre-construction phase is like doing your prep work the night before garbage day. Without it, months of vision, inspiration and design development can needlessly become a stressful endeavour with a healthy dose of compromise and added cost.

Pre-construction is where the blueprint for success is drawn - not just in terms of drawings but through feasibility studies, cost estimates, risk assessments, procurement strategies, and more. These tasks lay the foundation for everything that follows. Yet, too often, the focus stays on vision and design while execution planning is deferred until later. By then, the best opportunities for efficiency and constructability may already be lost.

At its core, pre-construction is about identifying potential issues before they become significant problems. It allows teams to identify gaps in coordination, reduce rework, and smooth out the tendering process.

“In short, the pre-construction phase isn’t just paperwork. It’s where real value is created. It’s where budgets are protected, schedules are established, conflicts are avoided, and headaches are prevented”

For example, my son’s “I’ll do it in the morning” approach occasionally results in missed bins or leftover waste—minor issues, really. However, on a USD 100M construction project, the same lack of preparation can result in costly delays, strained relationships, and change orders that could have been avoided with better planning.

The irony is that everyone knows that planning is important. And yet, just like a teenager who can’t be bothered to rinse out the yogurt container the night before, many projects treat preconstruction like an optional extra.

Smart owners don’t. They recognize that the first step to a successful build is defining success itself. Financial targets and timelines are key, but they’re only achievable if the project team addresses complexities early, including design inefficiencies, tight sites, buildability issues, and regulatory hurdles. Few things in construction are “simple or predictable.”

This is where experienced pre-construction professionals add value.

When engaged early, they can help clarify goals, develop realistic schedules, and offer ongoing cost feedback that guides decision-making. Their input goes far beyond “budget checking.” They can flag missing information on drawings, uncover scope gaps, and help streamline coordination between trades. They can lend valuable input from trade partners to influence the design. This kind of proactive work reduces RFIs, cuts down on reactive fixes, and keeps the construction team focused on building instead of putting out fires.

Developers are increasingly realizing that pre-construction isn’t just the design team’s job. Having someone with construction expertise involved from the outset can illuminate risks and propose smart, cost-effective solutions before they become problems. The earlier this happens, the more benefit it brings.

Of course, none of this sounds particularly glamorous - no renderings, no drone shots, no ribbon cuttings. But it’s in these early, less-visible stages that the seeds of project success are sown. Like my son’s garbage chore, it’s all about preparation. Get it right, and the execution is calm and smooth. Skip it, and you’re running down the driveway in your pajamas, dragging three bins behind you.

In short, the pre-construction phase isn’t just paperwork. It’s where real value is created. It’s where budgets are protected, schedules are established, conflicts are avoided, and headaches are prevented. For owners, the return on this investment is tangible - fewer delays, fewer surprises, and a project that’s far more likely to be delivered on time, on budget, and point.

Construction is complex. But success doesn’t have to be a mystery. With proper planning, proactive involvement, and a little guidance from someone who knows where the pitfalls lie, a project can move forward with clarity and confidence. And hey, if my son ever applies that kind of thinking to garbage day, maybe he’ll catch the bus without sprinting.