Solutions

We are constantly striving to meet the demands of our increasingly sophisticated clients and navigate an industry that keeps getting more complex, fast-paced and tightly integrated. Despite improved tools and technologies, our industry effectiveness is actually declining. The challenge is that much of the inefficiency we experience on projects is "invisible". It manifests itself as ambiguity related to goals/approach/roles, subtle personality conflicts, insufficient support mechanisms, and lack of awareness of underlying pervasive problems with team performance. These subtle factors are missed by most contractors, but are actually the foundation of healthy, high-performance teams – especially in an increasingly dynamic market.

The traditional process for acquiring an as-built reading of an elevator shaft requires engineers to go floor-by-floor with a measuring tape to survey the width of the shaft at each floor opening. These measurements capture the changes in the shaft width from floor-to-floor, providing subcontractors with the necessary information to assess how far off the wall they need to shim the rails to ensure they are perfectly straight for the elevator to run smoothly through the shaft.

Southwestern College in Chula Vista, CA turned to Balfour Beatty to build its new, $45.1 million, 40,000-square-foot Field House that today overlooks the school’s DeVore Stadium. The state-of-the-art Field House includes team locker rooms and training facilities. It also houses strength and conditioning facilities, four new classrooms, a 140-seat mixed media auditorium, faculty offices and tutorial spaces for student-athletes among other amenities.

Experienced construction professionals would never allow a crane operator to be engaged in a phone conversation while operating a crane. Why? Because we know intuitively that that operator must give his undivided attention to the task at hand – operating that crane safely - so no one is put at risk by his actions. So why is it so many of those same wise professionals think nothing of driving a 3500# vehicle down the road at 60 plus miles an hour while engaged in a phone call? Do we really need the government to make it law before we stop taking the risk? DO you think ‘click it or ticket’ is the reason we wear seat belts or have we accepted that it isn’t worth the risk of getting hurt that has us engaging that belt before we drive?

In this video an expert from our Major Projects team in the UK explains how the scanners measure millions of times per second to build up a full 3D model. All the information is captured in one site visit, making the process extremely efficient. "With the speed and accuracy of the scanners only improving, it is taking Balfour Beatty forward to the next level of digital engineering."

Here at Balfour Beatty, we have expanded the notion of what the preconstruction phase of a project really means—for us, it’s about more than just assessing cost. We pride ourselves on delivering a truly personal and customized preconstruction experience and believe that no two projects are alike, approaching each one with a fresh perspective.

Balfour Beatty leverages virtual reality technology to explore and test future construction designs prior to building anything in the physical world. Claire Mao and Daniel Shirkey explain how Balfour Beatty teams are using the technology to transform the construction process.

Check out the time lapse video of the construction at our 300 S. Tryon project in Charlotte.