Schedule Acceleration & Maintaining Quality Pt. 1

Contributed by Matt Porta

As we put 2016 to bed and kick off 2017, the need to rise above, stay positive, and the need to pursue excellence seems even more important than ever.  Today's post is step one of my perspective and attempt to articulate in writing what I hope to accomplish with my firm, Hord Coplan Macht, in 2017.  My goal is for this post to be one of a regular series, each building upon the previous.

An Introduction:

Some time around 2003 we started to see a shift in the overall project schedule here in Colorado.  For me, it was with the design and construction of the Excel Academy Charter School.  It was a new school building for an established charter school in Arvada, CO.  We were hired, along with our construction partner, Saunders Construction, in the fall.  The goal was to design, permit, and construct a new 44,000 square foot school building on a five acre site in time for the 2004 school year.  The SLATERPAULL design team geared up, worked side by side with Saunders and completed construction drawings before Christmas, broke ground in January and were complete in August.  We were able to construct a very unique solution, outside of the gymnasium, and there is barely a single right angle in the building.  The project won a tilt-up concrete construction award and began the basis of the new normal as it relates to the design and construction schedule.

Success begets opportunity and this same design and construction team was selected by the Jefferson County School District to build a new 63,000 elementary school, the first new school of their successful 2004 bond election.  We interviewed and were selected in January of 2005, started design immediately, completed phased construction documents, with the site drawings issued in April and the building in June. Construction began in May and the school was completed by August of 2006.  This new school, again a tilt-up concrete award winner, became the new benchmark for new public school design and construction and hence the official start of the new normal, where every bond funded school project in Colorado seems to follow.

What I have learned in our fast paced design and construction world is that expectations for excellence by our owners have not changed.  A process that used to be scheduled over 30 months is now completed in 18.  The biggest concern I have personally and professionally with this level of schedule acceleration is maintaining quality. Quality of our designs, quality of our details, quality of the overall coordination of our documents and the overall quality of construction.

So, if am worried about quality, what do I propose we do about it...

Stay tuned for part two.