Relentless Pursuit
of Excellence

At the Intersection of Design and Risk Reduction

Chief Estimator Brian Ficzeri approaches every project like a three-dimensional puzzle. But unlike a conventional jigsaw project, building critical infrastructure involves a level of complexity that requires the industry’s best problem solvers.

Over his nearly 30-year career, Brian has estimated some of Balfour Beatty’s most impactful bridge, highway and water projects. He has seen the industry change and adapt to an ever-evolving variety of supply chain disruptions and project risk scenarios. Through it all, Brian’s expertise has empowered client decision-making and forever improved the way our communities live and move.

Driving Down Risk

Estimators are integral to driving successful project outcomes from the earliest stages of preconstruction by identifying innovative and practical solutions that drive down costs. But far from simply crunching numbers, Brian knows that expert networking and well-cultivated industry savvy is essential to navigating a landscape of escalating risks.

“As estimators, we’re always looking for the best, most cost-effective way to do something,” Brian says. “That often requires some back-and-forth collaboration with our client and designers to arrive at the right intersection of design features, supply chain management and budget considerations.”

Brian maintains a revolving roster of suppliers, manufacturers and trade partners and a near-encyclopedic knowledge of common industry costs, but every component is less predictable than it’s ever been. To ensure our project stakeholders see the best outcomes, Brian keeps a particularly close eye on the prices of steel, concrete and other ubiquitous materials, as well as the strained labor market. Every advantage counts in the pursuit of reducing risk, and Brian finds them at every opportunity.

“In some ways, my role is now more complex, but understanding and facing each new challenge is part of the fun,” Brian says. “I combine my past project experience, knowledge of industry trends and strategic market analysis to determine which escalations are real and lasting, which are temporary and which path works for our client’s and trade partners schedules and budgets.”

Bridges to Success

Brian’s 27 years of estimating experience has touched countless landmark infrastructure projects in Texas. He still has favorites, however, and most are community-connecting bridges. From Houston’s I-10 to the Margaret McDermott Bridge and Skillman Bridge in Dallas, Brian’s preconstruction expertise powers later construction success.

Whatever the project, Brian likes to think of estimating in terms of what he colloquially calls “widgets” – discrete, modular and repeatable packages of design elements that create both cost reliability and eventual efficient constructability. Of course, Brian’s many widgets require constant re-evaluation according to market conditions. They nevertheless provide our estimating teams and the clients they serve with an endlessly useful toolbox of building blocks from which any infrastructure project can emerge.

“Finding opportunities for efficiency during the estimating process is as much an analytical task as it is a creative one,” Brian says. “Balfour Beatty’s estimating teams excel at creative project sequencing, procurement solutions and design revisions that can save our clients money and reduce risk.”

For example, a highway project may require the excavation and construction of a water retention pond. That design element may have a generally reliable set cost based on size and depth, but Brian identifies ways to reduce risk for all project stakeholders. Properly sequencing the pond within the larger project, repurposing excavated material and even strategic over-digging and using the excess to offset backfill costs elsewhere are just some possible opportunities to create savings on any front.

Brian’s project experience has also included a range of contracting models, including smaller hard bid projects and massive, multi-year design-build behemoths like the Horseshoe Interchange and its constituent Margaret McDermott Bridge, now a landmark feature of the Dallas skyline.

No matter a project’s contracting model, Brian strives to understand local municipalities, their construction regulations, project site conditions and how each factor might affect risk. Especially on large-scale design-build projects, many of which span many miles of highway, managing traffic redirection and utility relocation are critical considerations.

Brian and Balfour Beatty’s team of expert infrastructure estimators manage these risks – and so many more – through a matrix of common issues and a risk register, comprising even more movable widgets in their toolbox.

“No matter how complex a project is, we collaborate with all stakeholders to proactively seek out, evaluate and mitigate risks,” Brian says. “If something happens, do we have a half-a-million dollar problem, a $5 million problem or $50,000 problem? By planning for these contingencies in advance, our clients and trade partners are equipped to make the best decisions.”

By simultaneously satisfying local regulations, creating end-user-friendliness and meeting clients’ design and budget goals, Brian sets up projects for success.

Answering the “Why?”

Interstate highways and landmark bridges transport thousands of drivers every day, providing essential channels of connection for our communities. The design choices and cost considerations that inform these projects matter, not just to direct stakeholders but also the people who utilize them every day. Estimators like Brian can explain the “Why?” behind each such choice made at the strategic intersection of savings and design intent.

Problem-Solving With a Personal Touch

Project Executive Michelle Clark began her construction career on large projects with budgets in the hundreds of millions. By the time she reached Balfour Beatty in 2010, she had discovered her true passion for the industry’s polar opposite: fast-paced, high-touch and complex special projects.

In the decade since, Michelle has refined her problem-solving skills and earned a reputation as an enthusiastic advocate for Mid-Atlantic clients with unique project needs. In occupied buildings and on accelerated schedules, through night work and more, Michelle and her teammates leverage their years of special project experience to solve problems no one else can, delivering beautiful renovations and additions suited to each client’s needs.

Tackling Complex Logistics

Balfour Beatty experts like Michelle excel at special projects with truly unique challenges. Converting a mid-level tower floor into parking space or renovating a busy lobby with minimal disruption present a Gordian Knot of logistical considerations, but one that our teams are uniquely suited to untangle and overcome.

“Owners and clients come to us because they know we can see even the most complicated jobs through to success,” Michelle says. “Our clients trust us to solve problems that no one else can with design assistance, complicated or accelerated scheduling and innovative solutions – it’s where we thrive.”

On a current project in Washington, D.C., Balfour Beatty’s Mid-Atlantic special projects team has been tasked with adding an elevator to the interior of a historic downtown building. Beyond the aesthetic considerations of building an appropriately styled addition, the project site logistics are especially complex.

In addition to providing design input to help the elevator mesh with the surrounding structure, Michelle and her teammates are delivering construction solutions tailored to the site’s challenges, including limited space for material laydown, equipment and selective demolition. Backed by years of creative problem-solving experience, the team is performing complex shaft drilling, hydraulic installations and more within a narrow footprint.

Security Clearance: Granted

The Mid-Atlantic construction market, especially near historic Washington, D.C. is such that Balfour Beatty’s special projects teams often perform work for the federal government. Such projects can involve stringent security measures that Michelle loves to approach as another opportunity to solve a complex puzzle of logistical challenges.

“Federal special projects, just like special projects for private clients, are often located in occupied and secure office buildings where you must be a U.S. citizen, you can’t bring in any mobile devices and you can’t interact with surrounding offices in any way,” Michelle says. “It requires more planning and coordination than others in the industry may want to tackle, but we have the experience to ensure success. Every challenge is an opportunity to excel.”

Project coordination in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) also requires a unique approach to project management and Building Information Modeling (BIM) coordination.

When our teams can’t bring smartphones or tablets onto a project site, they rely on paper plans, intensive and intentional day-to-day planning and strategically timed communication with off-site personnel. Our special projects teams adapt to and overcome these unique constraints, carefully coordinating operations to maintain accelerated schedules and reliable budgets.

Making the Impossible Personal

When faced with challenging special projects, Michelle takes a personal, high-touch approach. By getting to know a client and understanding their project goals, she and her teammates can overcome any hurdle through innovative planning solutions, enhanced trade partner engagement and simply thinking outside the box.

Two back-to-back projects in the Warner Building in Washington, D.C. showcased Balfour Beatty’s ability to bring a client’s vision to life, first while converting an office floor into additional parking space. The team needed to avoid disrupting the existing parking structure above the floor and the offices above that, but the added complication of doorway-sized access points to the space precluded any large demolition equipment.

To effectively execute the garage conversion, including pouring a concrete ramp down to the new garage level, the team transported small loads of concrete in buggies that could navigate the space. Avoiding larger equipment also meant they could keep the rest of the garage open, which greatly benefited traffic to the rest of the building.

Impressed with the team’s work on the garage conversion, client JBG SMITH engaged Balfour Beatty to build a fitness center and renovate the Warner Building lobby. The client desired a green space despite the limited natural light, so Michelle and the team found a film set design specialist in California who could construct a 10-foot-tall artificial tree inside the lobby.

All the while, the team worked closely with JBG SMITH and the Warner Theater, a major occupant of the building, to coordinate work around live theater performances and peak activity hours in the lobby.

Near project completion, the team navigated even more complex logistics with the client and the city to deliver, assemble and install massive steel trellises, a key design feature of the renovated lobby. Though prefabricated in pieces off-site, each trellis component was large enough that the team worked with our delivery partners and the city of Washington, D.C. to coordinate lane closures during low-traffic hours.

The team needed to deliver the trellis components through the lobby’s front door, so constant communication with the client and its tenants was critical to mitigating disruptions to the Warner Building’s daily business.

Chasing the Next Challenge

Like many Balfour Beatty special projects experts across the U.S., Michelle feels uniquely suited for the fast-paced nature of these projects and loves what she does.

Every project has at least one especially unique, challenging or interesting feature. Whether she’s tackling an accelerated schedule, the challenge of delivering massive steel beams down a crowded city street or performing a complete lobby renovation without disturbing stage performances, Michelle is a passionate and respected Relentless Ally for our clients and communities.

Right on Track

Whether they carry commercial goods, raw materials or people, trains rarely have the luxury of stopping for long. That’s rarely an issue on an active rail line, but when railways require new construction, renovation and modernization, you need a hands-on expert who can keep things on track.

As one of Balfour Beatty’s leading rail experts, Commercial Director Chuck Chapman understands the importance of solutions-driven rail construction. Throughout his impressive 35-year career, Chuck has honed his skills as an innovative problem-solver, a master communicator and a creative project scheduler for public and private clients alike. Every dollar and every hour saved counts, and Balfour Beatty’s forward-thinking rail professionals like Chuck skillfully identify them at every turn.

Hands-On Problem Solving

Project leaders must display innovative problem-solving and the willingness to roll up one’s sleeves, take a personal role in the project plan and execute the best path forward.

Chuck’s storied career is replete with such situations, both as an estimator and as a project manager, and where the two disciplines converge. On a former employer’s bridge project, Chuck and his team were faced with a dilemma: the project required the creation of a dewatered area to facilitate bridgework, but traditional methods of sinking a cofferdam using sheet piles wouldn’t be adequate.

The approach spans of the bridge offered too little clearance to install cofferdams, and splicing sheet piles to handle the task would have increased project costs. So Chuck and his team got creative. They combined the strengths of each method by securing sheet piles to the cofferdam base using bulb seals.

“On each phase of the bridge, our solution probably saved four to six months,” Chuck recalls. “You multiply that across 36 segments, and the time and cost savings made an incredible difference for our client.”

While that level of creative problem-solving can come with the territory of complex infrastructure construction, it remains one of Chuck’s favorite aspects of his job and something he sees as wise stewardship of clients’ valuable time and money.

“There’s always an opportunity to partner with our clients, develop solutions and proactively prevent problems,” Chuck adds. “We get the right people together to create solutions that serve a project technically, fiscally and safely.”

Complete Communication

From the earliest planning phases to the completion of a project’s lifecycle, project leaders must be master communicators with every stakeholder. Direct, constant communication with clients, owners and trade partners can help prevent costly delays and any unnecessary impacts to the traveling public or vital supply chains that rely on rail infrastructure.

On Chuck’s most recent project, the electrification of Caltrain in San Jose, California, he prioritizes clear and consistent communication with project leaders, the client and local municipal authorities, ensuring Balfour Beatty adheres to all standards and procedures for working in and around critical infrastructure. Chuck understands that early and proactive team alignment enables the collaborative development of solutions that enhance critical logistics and safety planning. 

Impact-Sensitive Scheduling

Chuck and his fellow rail experts at Balfour Beatty cultivate a shared team understanding our client’s vision and target turnover dates, enabling strategic and successful project schedules.

“Traffic impacts and utility relocation are at the forefront of our minds on any rail project, because we know how mission critical both can be,” Chuck says. “By identifying these constraints early, we’re actually empowered to plan the most effective solutions such as nighttime closures and utility relocations that avoid interference with rail tracks and any permitting necessary to accomplish both.”

Balfour Beatty’s rail leaders can also leverage the many advantages of prefabrication where it can accelerate the schedule, save money and mitigate a project’s public impact. Railway replacements are a prime example.

“Prefabrication is another powerful tool in our planning toolbox,” Chuck says. “If we can build 1,000 feet of rail next to its final location, we can keep trains moving during that process, take the line out of service for a shorter outage period and install the new rail all at once.”

United in Vision

For Chuck, understanding a client’s vision is just par for the course. By communicating that vision to all stakeholders, then planning, designing and scheduling projects accordingly, the entire team stays on track.

Rail is one of our oldest modes of motorized travel but still plays a crucial role in the way we move people and goods around our communities and around the country. We’re proud to serve our clients by making rail construction and renovation as efficient, expedient and economical as possible and empowering leaders like Chuck who can make it happen.

The Responsibility of Protecting Your Team

Every workplace has its unique cast of characters, mainstays that feel as much a part of the company’s culture and structure as the company leadership. Not every workplace, however, can say their company veterans are in the business of saving lives every day. That’s exactly what Balfour Beatty safety professionals like Luis Torres do on jobsites across the country, combining expertise, pride in their work and relationship building to keep workers safe.

Industry-Leading Safety Leadership

Luis is a jobsite safety carpenter, but he’s not just any carpenter. His tenure with Balfour Beatty spans nearly three decades, and in that time, he’s carefully honed his skills as a carpenter and his knack for developing innovative safety solutions. He’s a known quantity on every job – someone so trusted that his teammates have affectionally given him the title “Safety Luis.”

A well-earned title it is. Luis’s handiwork caught the attention of a Balfour Beatty safety leader, on a recent visit to the Alfond Inn project in Winter Park, Florida. On the jobsite, a sprawling 75,000-square-foot addition to the boutique hotel, Luis had constructed a set of temporary elevator guardrails.

The quality of the installation was evident at first sight. Each had clearly been constructed by a professional who deeply cared about their work and the impact it would have on worker safety.

In this case, the elevator enclosure went above and beyond the standards mandated by OSHA, Balfour Beatty and our construction elevator trade partner in Florida. While providing essential safety protections, it also featured removable sections and stowable netting, allowing different parts of the enclosure to be temporarily moved to suit different loads over the course of the job. On top of that, the entire guardrail structure was both modular and removable, so Luis’s hard work can be re-used on a future elevator thereby creating greater workflow efficiencies and reducing waste.

Luis’s responsibilities as a construction safety carpenter and the responsibilities of his peers on other jobsites don’t end with elevator guardrails and enclosures, of course. Safety carpenters build walkways, guardrails, work platforms, scaffolding and much more, all essential components of making jobsites safer for Balfour Beatty teammates, trade partners and any visitors. Alongside personal protective equipment (PPE) and established safety rules and standards, their work is on the frontlines of construction safety.

Tenured and Trusted

In his decades on construction sites, “Safety Luis” has established himself as someone our workers and trade partners can trust, as evidenced by his tenure, his demand on jobsites and his role which has grown to encompass mentoring Balfour Beatty safety carpenters across the country.

“He’s easily worked on at least a hundred different projects over the years, and his work is truly first-class,” says Jonathan Pearch, project executive. “When Luis is on the job, we know he’s going to anticipate safety needs others may not see, often going above and beyond to provide the safest possible working environment for everyone on the site. He always has the ‘what’ covered and can build anything you ask him to, but when given a task, he thinks about the ‘why’ and finds creative, safe solutions to meet the need.”

It’s only fitting that Luis has also taken his safety sixth sense outside his usual southeast region, guiding and teaching safety carpenters as far afield as jobsites in Texas. On every job, Luis truly cares about the safety of his teammates – he knows what he’s there to do and he takes pride in executing that job with excellence.

Across a career so vast, in terms of both projects and years worked, construction safety standards have naturally changed immensely and for the better, but that accumulation of knowledge is one of Luis’s greatest assets.

“He may have been able to do his job in sneakers and shorts back in the day,” Jonathan jokes, “but there’s no doubt the industry absolutely has changed. Luis has adapted to those changes and, in many ways, pushed us even further toward safer jobsites.”

The vital expertise of Luis and Balfour Beatty safety carpenters everywhere exemplifies Balfour Beatty’s commitment to leading the construction industry in safety. 

Foundations of Trust

Whether she is anticipating the needs of trade partners, advocating for marginalized communities or lending a guiding hand to new teammates, Megan Cook-Eichelberger is building relationships to last.

At Balfour Beatty, our people-first culture is engrained in everything we do. From our decision-making to the ways in which we collaborate, we believe that the relationships we form with our clients, industry partners and fellow team members are paramount to everyone’s success. For Megan Cook-Eichelberger, a project manager in Portland, Oregon, relationship building is the key to consistently meeting project goals, producing meaningful results and ensuring that everyone has a seat at the table.   

Megan began her career in general contracting eight years ago as a traveling field engineer, but her experience in the industry goes back much further than that. Her father owned a drywall finishing business, so Megan was introduced to jobsite environments at a young age.

While working at her father’s business after high school, Megan not only developed a strong work ethic but also learned the importance of creating a workplace culture grounded in the values of respect and collaboration. “It’s not just the people on your own team,” she says. “Everyone you interact with, from your design team to your clients to your trade partners, plays such an important role in how you show up to work every day.” 

Since joining Howard S. Wright (HSW), a Balfour Beatty company, in 2019, Megan has found that building strong relationships allows her to collaborate with her teammates and partners more effectively and navigate conflicts when they inevitably arise. When teams have already established a foundation of trust, she maintains, they feel empowered to bring difficult topics to the table and identify the best solutions for the team and project.

Advocating for Trade Partners 

Through these experiences, Megan has developed a deeply personal understanding of the challenges trade partners experience and has become a staunch advocate and ally for their growth and development. She doesn’t consider a project successful unless everyone involved—the project team, clients and trade partners—is satisfied with the results. 

Megan is also committed to championing small and local businesses. Through collaborating with minority, women and emerging small businesses (MWESB), she and her teammates help remove barriers to success. The Block 216 project, on which Megan serves as project manager, has presented a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity for some local MWESB businesses. 

Projects of this size are rare in Portland; the building will total 1.1 million square-feet and construction is slated to span more than four years. Many small and emerging businesses may not have the experience or personnel to successfully execute scopes of this magnitude or complexity. Megan and the team implemented a right-size system to simultaneously meet our diversity, equity and inclusion goals along with the client’s: rather than issuing contracts to a single subcontractor for an entire scope package, the project team asks the partners what scope of work they can take on and allocates portions of the project accordingly. By applying this approach, the Block 216 project team is also stimulating the local economy by providing more jobs to local residents. 

Cultivating Inclusion

In addition to mentoring small businesses, Megan gives back to the women of Balfour Beatty and the greater Portland community. She currently leads her local chapter of the company’s Connecting Women employee affinity group, a role that has allowed her to partner with organizations such as Oregon Tradeswomen and Dress for Success that empower women in the construction industry and beyond.

Throughout her years in the industry, Megan has witnessed changing cultural dynamics that have resulted in a positive trend toward acceptance and inclusion. She considers herself fortunate that during her entire tenure with HSW, she’s always been able to bring her authentic self to the workplace. Megan prioritizes diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives in hopes that everyone is afforded the same opportunity. 

 “I’ve learned so much just by showing up,” she maintains. “By listening first, you start to understand what a community needs and how to implement change in a way that is equitable and sustainable over the long-term.” 

Developing Within

In addition to building a stronger, more inclusive construction industry, Megan seeks out opportunities to nurture the growth and development of her own teammates. She shares her experiences and lessons she’s learned throughout her career but stresses the importance of innovation. 

“Every project has milestones to meet, but I try to remind the team that there are lots of ways to deliver for our client,” Megan asserts. “We always want to look for new solutions and ways to achieve our goals more with greater efficiency and value. It’s important to me that my teammates know that we encourage creative problem-solving.” 

Megan’s extensive industry experience helps her mentor fellow teammates, but perhaps her greatest strength is her ability to put herself in others’ shoes. Whether she is anticipating the needs of trade partners, advocating for marginalized communities or lending a guiding hand to new teammates, Megan’s empathy makes her a great champion for others and allows her to lay a strong foundation of trust on which she is building relationships to last.

Building a Lasting Legacy

When Jimmy Anderson promised his high school sweetheart that they’d remain in one place their entire lives, he had no idea that he’d pretty quickly have to renege on that pledge. In fact, Jimmy’s storybook construction career has pretty closely approximated his wife’s childhood as an Air Force brat. They’ve lived in four states and the District of Columbia and moved over ten times—all in service to Balfour Beatty and our clients. Jimmy’s 37 years with one company makes him a rare gem in the construction industry. But even more exceptional than Jimmy’s longevity is his unique style as a builder that blends old school discipline with new school dexterity.

To be fair, Jimmy made that vow when he planned to pursue an architecture major at Clemson University. The construction bug soon bit the Chester, South Carolina native, and those who’ve had the opportunity to work with Jimmy since his first days with our Mid-Atlantic estimating team can attest that his passion has never wavered. And that’s really saying something. Ronald Reagan was just beginning his first term as president when Jimmy was hired. Nearly four decades later, Jimmy hasn’t returned to a traditional office setting, but the project executive has built quite a legacy in the field and has no plans on leaving it anytime soon. From office towers and airports to prisons and higher education beacons, Jimmy’s stamp of excellence across the Southeast is as inescapable as the summer humidity in his home state.

“I was raised to place a lot of importance on loyalty,” affirms Jimmy. “I’m still here because of the people, but also because I’ve always felt like I wasn’t another number in a big corporation. Balfour Beatty has treated me very fairly, and I’ve always tried to do the same.”

In many ways, Jimmy is a construction leader of a bygone era—one who can weld or woodwork as well as any trade partner. He began building in an age without computers, creating shop drawings with a parallel bar and draftsman’s pencil. Today, Jimmy has thoroughly embraced the tools and technologies like BIM and virtual reality that have replaced this manual work. “Now, I can assemble details and documents on a computer with my eyes closed,” he brims. But Jimmy hasn’t lost the grit that fueled him as a younger builder, known for routinely putting in 14-hour days, six days a week. “Every project is personal to me,” attests Jimmy, a self-professed perfectionist when it comes to managing his projects. “It’s like my own company, or it’s my own little world,” he remarks.

Jimmy’s tackled some tough ones in his day, too, like renovating seven historic dorms for the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Facing unforeseen conditions of buildings originally constructed nearly one-hundred years prior, the team couldn’t see the finish line, much less have confidence they would reach it on time. But Jimmy had enough faith for everyone combined and united the team under a simple slogan, “Believe It.” It became their rallying cry. To Jimmy’s surprise, the entire team arrived at a morning meeting sporting custom t-shirts bearing that mantra underneath his photo. Jimmy’s legendary, handlebar mustache was also prominently featured. “It broke my heart in a good way,” Jimmy reminisces. “It was a motivational thing, and heck, we got it done.” Their picture-perfect finish was a testament to the collective team’s perseverance, certainly, but also to Jimmy’s leadership that turned the tide in their favor.

“No one is more dedicated to a project’s success than Jimmy,” praises Johnny Rankin, executive vice president in Raleigh. “He always goes the extra mile to ensure every project stakeholder is successful. For a guy who has seen it all in this business, he still manages to have fun along the way!"

He’s bringing that same determination and camaraderie to his current project, a 150,000-square-foot Student Union for NC A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. Although Jimmy’s career has been filled with projects of immense complexity, he doesn’t bat an eye in citing this as his most difficult, due to its multifaceted, multidimensional skin coupled with an aggressive schedule. Jimmy has played an integral role in extensive value engineering efforts on this project—the largest built to date on the A&T campus—which underwent two vigorous stages of design modifications. Among the team’s many achievements includes establishing a robust engagement program for A&T students to learn about the project, furthering their real-world knowledge of construction before entering the workforce.

It’s an initiative that goes hand-in-hand with a passion Jimmy’s developed over the last decade—mentoring his younger teammates. “It really hit me how much they learn to do things the way you show them,” reflects Jimmy. “My mom was a schoolteacher her whole life. I reckon I can finally see why she enjoyed it so much.”

Loyalty and leadership—they’re traits that never go out of style. If you look beyond Jimmy’s encyclopedic industry knowledge, beyond his ability to successfully steward a project’s financials, you’ll understand the real impact of a man who’s dedicated his life’s work to a single company in pursuit of a singular goal: excellence. Aristotle once said “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” Jimmy Anderson is living proof that longevity in and of itself doesn’t create a legacy. But a man whose love for and pride in his work shine through everything he does can build a pretty inspirational one. And a man who embodies the message “we’re all in this together” in both word and deed? That’s a legacy that will stand the test of time. 

Helping to Pave the Way for Future “LEEDers” in Construction

Kyle Frandsen is a born leader, and he's especially passionate about sharing his knowledge and expertise about sustainability and green construction. His interest in the field was sparked at the University of Florida where he earned his master’s degree in building construction with a sustainability concentration. He also worked for a general contractor on a campus project pursuing LEED® Platinum certification from the United States Green Building Council.

In his role as Sustainability project manager for Balfour Beatty in California, Kyle is responsible for implementing the company’s sustainability initiatives through education, direction, and example.

Beyond that, Kyle truly enjoys being counted on for guidance in anything related to this field of study because he believes our business and environmental future depends on it. That’s why when he was asked by the dean of the Construction Management Program at California Baptist University in Riverside, California to help shape the program’s curriculum and courses, he embraced it as an opportunity to help make a difference for the future leaders of tomorrow. The relationship with the university came about through our company’s work on the Lancer Plaza North Renovation project where our Balfour Beatty team is renovating a 30,000-square-foot retail strip center with student support facilities and other community and campus life facilities.

“I was honored to be asked to help mold a program for the university,” said Kyle. “It’s great when you can work in a field that is forward thinking that can have an impact on people’s lives for years to come. Being able to contribute to the actual course content and become an even stronger industry partner for one of our clients is truly a rewarding experience.”

In addition to helping form the curriculum, Kyle was asked to teach one of the courses he helped to create: “Evolving Technologies in Construction.” Kyle challenges his students to learn the latest innovations in the field and also makes sure that all students leave with something tangible — LEED Green Associate credential. All students must pass the LEED Green Associate exam in order to pass the course. Last year, 100% of Kyle’s 16 students passed with flying colors, and now they all have a leg-up in their future careers in sustainable construction.

Recently, Kyle joined an elite group of young professionals when Engineering News-Record (ENR) California named him as one of their Top 20 Under 40 winners in 2016. The publication's annual, regional competition recognizes 20 individuals under the age of 40 who represent the "Best-of-the-Best" in their construction and design careers by giving back to their industry and communities.

Kyle also practices what he preaches at home with his wife and two young children. Solar panels are installed on his roof, recycle bins are in his kitchen and garage, and he is instilling an importance of resource conservation in everything they do together as a family.     

Putting the Quality in Quality Control

As someone who grew up working with his father and uncle on different build and repair jobs, Balfour Beatty Quality Assurance/Quality Control Director Terry Marsh always enjoyed working with his hands. Given his natural abilities, construction may have seemed an obvious career path, but in his earlier years, Terry was more interested in becoming a pilot. 

Fresh out of high school and only a mere 17-years-old, Terry was eager to launch his career. As part of his job search, Terry took a leap and responded to an ad for an electrical superintendent position. The only catch was, at such a young age, he didn’t have any of the necessary background for it. Little did Terry know at the time, taking that small leap would set him up for a successful 30-year career in the construction industry. 

When asked why he applied to a role for which he didn't initially meet the qualifications, Terry explained that he wanted to learn the trade and simply needed the right opportunity to get his foot in the door. From there, the leap didn't seem so far off. "The owner apparently liked my drive and hired me immediately," recalls Terry. 

Terry was a natural fit for the construction industry, easily surpassing most of his peers and quickly obtaining his master's electrician license. After Terry worked alongside Balfour Beatty on several projects, our team quickly recognized his potential and offered Terry a full-time position in 1991. It was a move that established the foundation for Terry’s career as a highly esteemed quality control expert. 

Working with teams in Nashville, Tennessee and later, Dallas, Terry quickly rose through the ranks and honed his craft in quality control. Praised by teammates for his attention to detail, drive for excellence and unrivaled knowledge of building systems, Terry has built a reputation for significantly improving the quality of every project he touches. 

In his role, Terry provides critical recommendations to improve processes and mitigate risks or adverse trends that have the potential to impact the successful delivery of best-in-class projects. Through consistent and accurate execution of quality control procedures including reviewing installations and assisting teams in improving their execution of installations and systems, Terry is a consummate Relentless Ally for our people, partners and projects. 

Providing the foundation of a successful and safe project, effective quality control programs can mitigate the likelihood of costly rework and associated schedule delays, promote greater collaboration between trade partners and resolve design challenges that arise as projects progress. Balfour Beatty’s quality control plans are founded on delivering the owner’s vision and goals and empowering trade partners to execute quality work in rewarding team environments. 

“My goal is to help our project teams succeed through consistent and accurate execution of quality control procedures," says Terry. "Safety, quality and schedule are the foundation of a successful project. When I step on a project where it is evident that everyone cares about safety, it is always well-organized and clean. It is obvious at that point that everyone there is proud of what they do, they enjoy their work and they place a high degree of importance on getting things right."

Preferring to keep his boots on the ground, Terry makes it a priority to visit as many jobsites as he can. And although he might seem like more of a behind-the-scenes operator, over the last 30 years of working with our business, Terry has played an integral role in hundreds of projects across the Southeast and Texas. 

Terry’s influence far transcends the projects on which he has directly worked. When Balfour Beatty launched a new national Quality Control program in the early 2000s, Terry was a key contributor to the initiative. He also had a hand in our most recent development of an Integrated Quality Control plan launched in 2020, an innovative approach to quality control that incorporates project stakeholders’ expectations into our jobsite specific plans. Before construction begins, project teams obtain input from trade partners, owners and designers to build a plan that holistically incorporates every concern and expectation. This process builds on itself in bitesize pieces throughout the project lifecycle instead of creating a partially complete quality control plan at the beginning when pressure is high to complete design and begin construction. 

On a more personal level, Terry is known by his peers for being a natural teacher and mentor. Willing and able to make his technical expertise easily understandable for a wide range of skill levels, Terry’s extensive knowledge and research often helps teams discover and implement innovative solutions before they become problems. 

"What struck me most the very first time I met Terry, that still rings true today, is his ability to share knowledge with others without being overbearing while doing it," says Titus Rodriguez, senior project manager for Balfour Beatty. "In my 20 years with the company, Terry has never failed to provide assistance when called upon, which is an invaluable asset to his teammates."

That trust isn’t just one-sided. 

“Three decades is a long time to spend with one company,” says Terry. “But the people and the relationships I’ve built over the last 30 years have truly been the best part about working at Balfour Beatty. I trust my teammates and our leadership to always make the right decisions based on what is best for the business to thrive.”

After successfully celebrating 30 years with Balfour Beatty, it’s hard to believe that Terry could have ever ended up in any career other than construction and quality control. But much like the pilot he once yearned to be, he has used his knowledge, training and natural skills to help our project teams soar to new heights at every opportunity. 

Make Every Moment Count

Safety, Health and Environment Director Ryan Little recalls a life-changing conversation that forever impacted his approach to Zero Harm

Do you remember where you were around noon on Saturday April 28, 2007? Were you eating lunch, playing golf or maybe enjoying an afternoon in the park with your children? That day may be a distant memory for most, but fourteen years later, I can still recall every detail because it fundamentally changed me as a safety professional. It changed me as a person. And it reinforced my view of our responsibility to ensure safety is within everyone’s reach – on every task, every day, on every jobsite. 

At the time, I was working for another major general contractor on a high-rise project in Miami, Florida. Before I joined the team, the project had already gone wrong in almost every way a project can. Significant and ongoing staffing turnover led to poor management, catastrophic schedule delays and communication breakdowns such as the mass overstocking of drywall. With a booming local economy, second-tier trades were pressed to meet aggressive production targets on advanced scopes. We even dismantled the first tower crane as a hurricane was approaching. This project had nearly every risk factor for a serious safety incident. 

But we never expected that on April 28, someone would lose their life on our jobsite. A 26-year-old young man from Nicaragua fell 90 feet to his death while moving some of the building’s extra drywall onto an outrigger. This tragedy was entirely preventable—the result of a series of unsafe choices, an acceptance of unnecessary risk and a toxic ‘rip and react’ project culture that failed to address either dangerous dynamic. 

But before I explain the technical circumstances that led to this young man’s death, I’d like to set the stage for the challenges our workforce faces and why I immediately recognized that I could have done more to ensure safety was within his reach. 

This young man was being paid $.25 cents for each board of 70-pound drywall he moved. It was physically demanding, repetitive and production-driven work. Every night, he went home to a one-room extended stay motel that he shared with six brothers and sisters. 

When I was notified about the fatality, I remembered riding up an elevator with that young man earlier the same day. As I went through a roller coaster of emotions, I replayed every moment of the interaction in my mind. After a quick PPE check, I asked him to put on his eye protection in my best Spanish. With a smile and a nod, he did just as I’d asked. But I didn’t check for his orientation sticker or verify what task he was working on. I didn’t engage him in a personal conversation. By not maximizing that moment, I felt I had failed him. 

When I spoke to his mother just a few hours later, that missed opportunity flashed before my eyes. She asked me a haunting question no parent should ever have to ask and no safety professional ever wants to answer: “Why did you let my son die on your jobsite?” 

I could have told her that the outrigger subcontractor had gone to lunch, leaving the system unmonitored. I could have told her that his crew grabbed some unattended harnesses they hadn’t been trained to use and loaded boards onto an outrigger they weren’t authorized to work on. Or that they’d removed their retractables, so when the load on the outrigger shifted, they had no adequate fall restraint measures in place. But none of those responses would have brought her any comfort, and none would have brought her son back. They didn’t bring me any comfort either. 

We owe the people who work on our projects more than leaving their lives to luck or chance, but far too often in this industry, we believe we are safe when we just got lucky. Or, we assume that people will make safe choices because we think they seem like common sense. But that’s not always the case. Yes, these young men made misguided and unsafe choices, but their only motive was to get a job done to provide for their families. No one sets out on any given workday with the intent of getting hurt. 

This tragedy reminded me that safety isn’t about a sign or a rule. Rules are important and help save countless lives on jobsites every day, but those measures don’t work in isolation. 

Safety must be an authentic value we live and operate by every single day. To make safety within everyone’s reach, we must engage in personal conversations with our trade partners and take the time to examine our work through the eyes of the people performing it. By forming meaningful, authentic relationships, we can empower people to make safety, quality and production so deeply ingrained into their everyday operations that it’s as routine as putting on a seatbelt. They also need to understand it’s their right and responsibility to speak up if they see something unsafe. 

At its core, safety is rooted in trust—trust our workforce places in us to create safe jobsites, trust they place in one another to make safe choices and trust that everyone operates with one another’s best interests at heart.

In the wake of any safety incident, there are always difficult questions to answer. Some questions, like the one the young man’s mother posed to me, can’t be answered because there are no do-overs. To honor his memory, challenge yourself today to honestly evaluate whether you embody the leadership, courage and commitment to make safety within everyone’s reach on your team, jobsite or office environment. 

Don’t let a single ‘elevator moment’ pass you by.