Owners of public and civic construction projects are chiefly concerned with wise stewardship of public funds, always striving to maintain the perception that taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars are being spent wisely toward community good. 

Balfour Beatty’s teams make that mission our own, as displayed by our ongoing work on the City of Richardson Public Library Renovations in North Texas. Working through unavoidable delays by seizing every opportunity for collaboration, our team is delivering a state-of-the-art, bright and beautiful building for the city and striving to provide the very best in lean construction practices, value maximization and dynamic project solutions.

BIM Breakthroughs

Richardson’s public library was originally built just over half a century ago, so the opportunity to renovate and modernize also presented an opportunity to move away from outdated architectural styles to something more inviting and aesthetically pleasing. Unfortunately, decades-old construction, layers of hidden details and more can also present design and logistical challenges, which our team strives to identify as early as possible.

For Richardson public library, one such detail was uncovered and known early in project planning: a series of recessed square spaces in the building’s ceilings, until now hidden under sheetrock and ceiling tiles and spanning much of the ceilings in a waffle-like array. At one point, to best ensure accurate planning and bidding, Superintendent Ryan Taylor even visited the site to measure the recesses by hand.

“Our team knew right away that this detail could pose challenges going forward, and it couldn’t have been found any earlier,” says Senior Project Manager Cody McCreary, who also recently led the Cedar Hill Library in the Park project to great success. “Our mindset as a Relentless Ally is to approach everything as collaboratively as possible, so we went above and beyond to immediately and correctly diagnose the problem.”

To continue pursuing the project on the most accurate grounds possible, Balfour Beatty elected to bring in our industry-leading Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) team to conduct extensive and thorough laser-scanning of existing conditions. With extraordinarily accurate scans of the spaces in hand, our VDC team could then conduct a full Building Information Modeling (BIM) coordination process to detect clashes between the existing conditions, needed MEP system renovations and any newly designed architectural features to be added later.

“What may seem like a delay in the short term is really a way to best serve our clients in the long term,” Cody adds. “By proceeding with designs and existing conditions that are fundamentally incompatible, the project would inevitably encounter even longer delays, and costly re-work, neither of which meet our standard of service.”

Early detection of design clashes then thrusts project stakeholders into an entirely new decision tree, and one that our teams are uniquely equipped to advise. Again, our teams’ standard of service is to leverage every opportunity for collaboration if it can further successful outcomes for our clients.

“The process started with clash detection soon became a floor-by-floor reevaluation of the design, relocating and rerouting MEP conduit as necessary and constantly re-checking BIM coordination with our VDC team,” Cody adds. “It’s been a true collaborative effort, and we look forward to continuing in that spirit as we look for schedule and budget efficiencies to offset this setback as much as possible.”

Personally Ensuring Success

Our teams take on a sense of duty to our civic clients’ public trust so thoroughly that it extends through the ranks of project leadership. Our service to clients as Relentless Allies requires buy-in from every level of project staff, but that buy-in begins at the top and works its way though our culture. Our project managers, superintendents and other leaders believe there is no substitute for personal relationships – backed by a wealth of experience, data and creative solutions – when navigating a complex project.

To keep the project on track going forward, finding creative scheduling solutions requires extending that same personal touch and collaborative mindset to our industry partnerships.

“In the face of unanticipated delays, every day we can save on the schedule represents our upheld commitment to Richardson’s public trust,” Ryan says. “It’s here that our networks of trusted trade partners, decades in the making, truly pay off as we seek collaborative solutions to accelerate the schedule.”

While the exact path to success is not yet clear, it will likely come in any combination of solutions like starting key trades earlier than originally planned, bringing in trade partners concurrently that might otherwise have worked in sequence and more. Every opportunity for enhanced efficiency counts.

“Any unexpected schedule acceleration will require constant collaboration amongst our trade partners and concessions of what might be their preferred working environment, all in the name of doing everything possible for our client,” Ryan adds. “Thankfully, these are qualities we already cultivate in our industry partnerships, and I have every confidence in our ability to achieve success.”

Partners in Public Trust

When building vital public facilities, from libraries to public schools to multi-functional civic centers, Balfour Beatty understands that our clients take their public investiture seriously.

Over many projects across Texas, our teams have repeatedly demonstrated proud ownership of that responsibility. We come alongside the mission of public stewardship with industry-leading operational practices and a client-first approach to collaboration, overcoming even unexpected setbacks to ensure accelerated schedules, reliable budgets and successful projects that better our communities.