DPR Hits Critical Success Factors on the new Engineering Building for the University of California, Santa Cruz

From the get go, there was nothing “sluggish” about the $48 million new Engineering Building on the campus of the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) that promised to be a remarkable scheduling feat when soil grouting began in July 2002.

Selected through a process that emphasized team experience and scheduling effectiveness in addition to the proposed price, DPR—working closely with executive architect Anshen + Allen Los Angeles and UCSC project managers—fashioned a collaborative strategy capable of meeting the university’s ambitious goals for the five-story 142,000-sq.-ft. engineering building, which includes a mix of classrooms, graduate offices and laboratories, and an 8,000-sq.-ft. 250-seat lecture hall. Before even one speck of the eventual 50,000 yards of dirt was exported or 1,100 tons of steel erected, 15 months had been shaved off the traditional University of California (UC) system timetable for projects of the same size and scope, leaving a final start-to-finish construction schedule set at just 21 months. Indeed, the project moved from the beginning of schematic design to substantial completion in just over three years.

“We had to accelerate the design and construction process so that the project could be included in a package of University of California facilities to be funded by former Governor Davis’s statewide economic stimulus package. The construction manager-at-risk (CM-at-Risk) approach we used for the first time allowed us to get DPR on board early to help with schedule and design decisions to fast-track the process,” said Frank Zwart, associate vice chancellor and campus architect at UCSC.

Precision Preconstruction and Scheduling

Following an emerging trend in the higher education construction market, the CM-at-risk project delivery method offered DPR the opportunity to participate in the process upfront, enabling the team to reduce costs at the very beginning of the project by nearly $2 million through value analysis, schedule input and more competitive subcontractor bidding.

“Our early involvement particularly paid off during the preconstruction phase, when the 4D model of the building’s structural steel frame and foundation sequencing revealed a conflict in a retaining wall that supported the upper elevation of the first floor,” explained DPR Project Executive George Hurley. “By identifying the issue well before the project broke ground, the redesign effort could be executed sooner and the correct specifications put out to bid, translating into both overall time and money savings for the university.”

DPR uses 4D modeling technology that incorporates the project schedule (time) into 3D architectural drawings to enhance collaboration and identify sequencing issues on large complex projects. The 4D models also are often utilized throughout the job as a communication tool for project stakeholders and sometimes even the end users or general public, especially in the case of occupied facilities.

The team also overcame the many other challenges threatening the compact nature of the schedule. The site required extensive soil grouting due to the make up of the geology on the campus, which extended the timeline from 35 days to nearly four months. Compounding the setback was a 196 percent increase in rainfall during the mass excavation phase that cost another 23 days in the project’s critical path. Despite the delays, the team was able to begin steel-erection right on time—a milestone date that was set one year prior during the preconstruction phase.

“It was a true coordination feat,” said Hurley. “Most projects take three months to get out of the ground; this one took eight. We recovered a lot of time during the concrete operation and compressed the schedule, tracking 12 months from the start of steel erection until the building was complete in July of this year—three months before planned.”

In fact, the early summer completion is allowing the school full use of the facility a quarter early when classes begin in the fall.

High Marks

Equally impressive as the aggressive schedule is the project’s safety record: The DPR team logged 300,000 hours without an injury and worked 12 months without a recordable incident.

“Every event, from the beginning of the project, was carefully planned and mapped out to ensure the safety of the team, students and faculty,” said Hurley, who added that some 230 craftspeople were onsite each day building on the occupied 15,000-plus-student campus. “We also coordinated closely with the campus traffic control department to develop a specific trucking plan through the campus to minimize disruption.”

DPR also scored a top grade on its Customer Satisfaction Survey with the owner’s representative, who ranked DPR an average of 67 percent better than Best in Class in the areas of safety, quality, cost management, planning, job staffing, teamwork, responsiveness, cost control/billing, change orders and closeout.