On Friday May 17th, OrgMetrics was honored to receive 6 Partnering Awards from the International Partnering Institute. This week we will share each team’s level of recognition (Diamond is highest, Ruby Second highest, and Sapphire third highest) and a couple of key elements that made each project noteworthy.
Our List of 2024 IPI Award-Winning Projects
- $825,018 was invested in Partnering and $152.9M was saved
- For every $1 invested in Partnering, each project saved $98
- The total investment of construction for the 18 projects was $1.686B
- 12 of 18 Award winners were on or under budget
- 10 of 18 had a perfect safety record
- 6 of 18 projects finished on or ahead of schedule
Owner: City of Fresno
Prime Contractor: Teichert Construction and MCM Construction
Designer: Mark Thomas
CM: NV5
The Veterans Boulevard Interchange Project (Veterans Blvd.) is a new high-profile interchange connecting the heavily traveled California State Route 99 Freeway with the Local Street network in the northwest area of the City of Fresno. The $48M design/bid/build project significantly enhances traffic circulation and commerce for the City. The work consisted of constructing a six-lane super-arterial roadway, a freeway interchange at SR99 (State Route 99), a grade separation over the Union Pacific Railroad, six new on and off-ramps, four bridges, local road improvements, six new signalized intersections and a new pedestrian trail network. The project team overcame issues with soil conditions which led the team to refine the roadway section design and a leaner hot-mix-asphalt and road base design. They also implemented thicker sections to reduce maintenance lifecycle costs. In the end, the team invested $1M to resolve the issue, but saved $350,000 through related Value Engineering .
This project team introduced Partnering on the project to help manage the complexity of the work. During the project, the team agreed to revamp the claims timeframes to allow escalation to the resolution ladder to occur, adjusted the project phasing to enable early infrastructure work to help manage risk, and finished the project early and within budget and 3% of the contingency saving millions through value engineering. This project set a new bar for City of Fresno and they are planning to roll out partnering on large projects moving forward.
Owner: California Department of Water Resources
Prime Contractor: Sierra Mountain Construction Inc.
Designer: AECOM
CM: California Department of Water Resources
2017 was one of the wettest years on record for Northern California. Following the highwater events of early 2017, the Department of Water Resources (DWR), the Central Valley Flood Protection Board (CVFPB), and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) were activated through the State-Federal Flood Operations Center (FOC) to work in coordination with State local maintaining agencies (LMAs) to identify levees and facilities that were damaged, prioritize remediation of damaged levees and facilities based of risk assessment, and repair and rehabilitate these levees and facilities as prioritized.
The $5M project consisted of levee repairs at three sites over two counties. The intended purpose of the repairs is to protect the surrounding levee system and to provide flood protection to the referenced areas.
To support Sierra Mountain Construction (SMCI) with its need for an alternate rock supply, the DWR team pushed its historical boundaries and provided access for SMCI to the Department of Flood Management’s waterside site emergency rock loading facility to facilitate loading rock onto barges during season one. The site is part of DWR’s Department of Flood Management emergency response system and typically sits idle. SMCI and DWR worked together to put the idle equipment into service, some of it for the first time. As a result, SMCI stayed on schedule and helped identify and repair an oil leak in the DWR conveyor belt, improving DWR’s emergency readiness.
A high-trust culture was developed when the decision was made to postpone work for Site 46 during the kick-off session due to early supply chain and productivity concerns. This leap of faith served the project team well. DWR also showed flexibility, allowing the team to bank workdays from the first season and move them to the next year, which enabled the team to complete the project within the original number of working days – a fantastic partnering agreement. The team completed the project together with all issues resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.
Owner: San Francisco Public Works
Prime Contractor: Yerba Buena Engineering & Construction, Inc.
This $3.2M project scope included cleaning up a weedy, trash-strewn empty lot located in between Fifth Street and I-80 onramp and offramp near the Bay Bridge and turning it into a beautiful nursery for raising trees specifically suited to the City’s various microclimates (species that can be hard to source locally). The nursery will increase the tree canopy in the City’s neglected neighborhoods and host a workforce development program to train disadvantaged invidi8uals for jobs in arboriculture and urban forestry. It will also welcome visitors interested in learning about tree’s role in cleaning and providing needed green space.
In order to complete the project in time for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leader’s Summit (APEC) San Francisco Public Works (SFPW) needed to get used to making quick decisions which was difficult. All in all, the project team saved $359K and completed the project 53 days early by working together seamlessly to overcome risks such as changing the elevations of the cast-in-place walkways to make up for utilities that were not installed with proper coverage and using a McNear concrete block system to build a retaining wall.
Owner: SFO Design & Construction
Prime Contractor: Schembri Construction
Designer: SFO Engineering
The $5.7M 12 kV Replacement Project replaced aging medium voltage cables, and included about 60,000 feet of cable replacement, establishing a new switchgear station, and providing temporary generators to provide redundancy for SFO’s electrical system. Delivering the project required custom traffic control plans for high-traffic areas and innovative solutions for dewatering a tunnel.
This team overcame several challenges to finish the project 186 days ahead of schedule and within budget. A major challenge involved replacing the 12Kv cable within an underground tunnel spanning from McDonnel Rd. beneath Highway 101 to Station BA. The team had initially planned to discharge the water onto a neighboring marsh field, but the use permit was denied. Through collaborative efforts with the SFO Traffic Engineering department, a solution was devised to dewater the tunnel into the SFO-approved storm drain system from its entrance on the East side of Highway 101. This collaborative solution proved not only more cost-effective but also demonstrated effective partnering between SCC and SFO teams.
Other issues included a 3-month cable procurement delay which the team resolved by purchasing the 12Kv cable before the contract certification was finalized saving schedule, and increased traffic and potential disruptions to tenants in Bldg. 648. The team worked with the tenants to develop a plan to revise the truck route and allowed the team to work from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Owner: Airport Design & Construction
Prime Contractor: Schembri Construction
San Francisco International Airport’s Quick-Turn-Around (QTA) Rental Car Facility, an expansive 131,000-square-foot complex, is the third busiest Consolidated Rental Car Center (CONRAC) in the United States. In 2022, the facility encountered a critical challenge as its fire sprinkler and alarm systems, integral components installed during its original construction in 1999, had surpassed their operational lifespan. This prompted a Notice of Violation from the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD), requiring rapid action to avoid a fire watch mandate or, in the worst-case scenario, a facility shutdown. SFO responded quickly with the development of a design build project for this crucial upgrade of fire protection and alarm systems, including the integration of a pre-action fire protection system tailored for the electrical load center.
The team was able to save the project $200,000 through collaboration to limit the amount of fire watch needed and helped launch a local business provider who continues to offer that service today. The team also worked with the Tenant Liaisons to help deliver the schedule months ahead of schedule and $182,000 under budget.
Owner: City and County of San Francisco, Public Works
Prime Contractor: A. Ruiz Construction
Harrison Street is a heavily pedestrian and vehicular traveled throughfare associated with three Bay Bridge ramps: two onramps and one offramp. The Harrison Street Improvement project improves safety, accessibility, and the aesthetic qualities of Harrison Street. The scope of this project included new infill street trees, planter fencing, and low planting; improved pedestrian and roadway lighting; new traffic signals, bulb-outs, and curb ramps; new sidewalk paving, special pavers in the furnishing zone, where trees and lighting are installed; and street furnishings including bike racks and trash receptacles. This project also included replacement and/or relining of the sewer along several blocks of Harrison Street.
Midway through the project new Public Works Commission was formed and all change orders greater than 10% in time or cost would need to be routed through them. This new system could have derailed the original project schedule via high cost Owner- or field-initiated changes, but even after over $600K of change orders were added, the City worked with the contractor to find cost savings of nearly the same amount, resulting in a final cost of $9.33M and avoiding a budget request from the SFPW Commission. This was easily one of the biggest wins resulting from Partnering.
Owner: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA)
Prime Contractor: Air & Lube Systems, Inc.
S.F. Muni Woods Division with 250 vehicles stationed and maintained in it, has the biggest bus fleet to serve San Francisco. The existing drive-through bus wash system consisted of two bus washers and water reclamation system, which converts the wastewater from the wash building into water that can be reused for bus washing.
The $5M project upgraded the bus wash system to accommodate the 40’ and 60’ hybrid and battery electric buses used to provide transit through the City of San Francisco. The new system is designed to wash 120 buses per day: sixty 40’ buses and sixty 60’ buses. The project is a critical part of SFMTA’s ongoing effort to improve transit service and functionality of the Muni work environments.
The project team overcame many issues including a power outage, demolition of thicker concrete than expected, extra demolition of trench drains, additional footing rebar, and meeting bus wash performance criteria that required standard bus wash equipment to be customized. The team also expanded the work to include a roof repair after discovering that the existing room was leaking and insufficient to protect the new equipment. As a recovery tactic the team agreed to work weekends after delivery of the new bus wash equipment was delayed from September to November.
Despite the many issues the project team encountered, they were able to successfully complete the project $58.3K under budget
Each of these teams overcame several challenges and managed to deliver exceptional results. We are grateful for the recognition from the International Partnering Institute and for these amazing project teams.
– Rob
Rob Reaugh is President of OrgMetrics LLC. He facilitates the City and County of San Francisco Collaborative Partnering Steering Committee and currently works with San Francisco International Airport, San Jose International Airport, BART, Caltrans, and others. He holds a Masters’ Degree in Alternative Dispute Resolution.
For more information please contact Rob Reaugh, RobReaugh@Orgmet.com / (925) 487-2404 (cell), or OrgMetrics, (925) 449-8300.
Rob Reaugh is President of OrgMetrics LLC. He facilitates the City and County of San Francisco Collaborative Partnering Steering Committee and currently works with San Francisco International Airport, San Jose International Airport, BART, Caltrans, and others. He holds a Masters’ Degree in Alternative Dispute Resolution.