Deferred maintenance and facility upgrade are among the most pressing issues facing college and university facility managers today – and as we all know, these projects can be among the most difficult to construct, for a variety of reasons that we will discuss later in this article. Maintaining and enhancing existing facilities is the crux to creating a strong campus aesthetic that attracts students.
Over the course of five decades in business – the past two of which have been predominated by education projects – KBE Building Corporation has amassed considerable insight into what works and what doesn’t on deferred maintenance construction projects at higher education institutions. This article highlights the most significant challenges, and recommends the singular solution that we have used year after year to overcome these on-campus obstacles.
The specific challenges include:
- Deferred maintenance on aging campus infrastructure is the least glamorous and hardest
- The campus is rarely completely empty, so teams of contractors often must work within occupied structures and around significant obstacles, not the least of which are young pedestrians
- Much of the work is simply impossible to do during the academic year, so constructionseasons are typically very short
- Turf battles and competing agendas among all parties are commonplace, if not the norm
- Accelerated schedules and a high-pressure environment can morph the most minorcommunication challenges into project-killing disasters.
Fortunately, a set of Best Practices exists to attenuate each of these challenges. KBE has developed these Best Practices as part of our broader “Asset Reinvestment Program for Colleges & Universities”. We’ve outlined below our key learnings that may be of help to you in planning your future campus upgrades and maintenance projects.
KBE’s Asset Reinvestment Program is a planning and construction approach that pools multiple projects to form a single, linear building program. Depending on the scope of your program, it may be beneficial to engage an independent consultant to review and assess the overall campus condition. The goal is to develop a list of recommended projects that are prioritized by:
Severity of need;
- “Visibility” of the work and its impact on student recruitment and retention;
- Impact on long-term operating costs
- Impact on the facility’s ability to safely and efficiently continue to use the facilities; and
- Ability to defer some projects to subsequent years without incurring additional repair cost due to delay.
Although the program can be implemented over the course of one year, a single-year project islimited by the amount of work that can be completed during academic breaks.
A multi-year project is quite different and provides the following benefits:
- Scope can be divided into smaller segments that can fit into preferred calendar slots.
- Subcontractor performance and loyalty to the success of the project are significantlyenhanced by the prospect of future work in the subsequent years;
- The project team has sufficient time to develop a strong working relationship and“partnership” mentality because of the associated learning curve dynamics that are inherent when working in a new environment.
- The benefits of the Partnering Process (see nearby box) are realized and become an integral element of the team structure. Typically, newcomers to the Partnering process don’t realizethe full value of Partnering until they have completed a Partnered project, because it takestime to develop the critical success factor of trust built over time.
- The project team develops from a “learning team” into a high performance team.
Regarding trade contractor selection and participation, the following criteria are essential:
- Locally based (within one hour) – the closer the better, from a service standpoint;
- Key company leaders will be engaged in the project (preferably an owner of the company);
- Financially strong;
- Appropriate project experience; and
- Self performs work (second-tier subcontracting is discouraged due to the potential for disconnection)
After subcontractor bidding is received and budget constraints met for the preferred projects previously earmarked, subcontract awards can be made. It is always critical to:
- Balance the workload with capabilities to prevent overloading any subcontractor;
- Award an adequate amount of work to any one subcontractor for economy of scale; and
- On multi-year projects, share the work among all the key subcontractors who havepreviously participated in the Asset Reinvestment program to maintain their interest and commitment to the overall project.
When done properly, these Best Practices result in astounding productivity. With an appropriately planned project that also utilizes the partnering concept, KBE Building Corporation has completed summer-based construction seasons from as little as $1 million (6-10 projects) to more than $9 million (100+ projects).
Simon F. Etzel, Jr.is senior vicepresident | principal at KBE Building Corporation
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Partnering: The Silver Bullet for Deferred Maintenance
Partnering is a collaborative and collegial approach to managing projects through team-building and encouragement rather than the adversarial approach that has long plagued the construction industry. The International Partnering Institute describes a formal Partnering program as “…a collaborative process that works to develop a “culture” of partnership between the organizations and teams that must work together to achieve the successful delivery of construction projects.”
Partnering can significantly enhance and improve any construction project by building the essential team relationships, and is a particular benefit when coordinating multiple, concurrent projects. The Partnering Charter is perhaps the best embodiment of this innovative approach. On a Partnered project, every member of the team – the owner, design teams, construction manager, major trades and even major suppliers – voluntarily sign a Partnering Charter at the start of each year’s endeavor. This Charter represents the combined goals of every team member – developed in concert at a full-day project kick-off meeting – and a pledge by each to honor and support one another in achieving those goals. KBE has used formal Partnering since 2005 on more than 250 facilities maintenance and facilities upgrade projects at Connecticut College – more than $53 million in construction volume – without a single subcontractor or vendor claim – due to the extensive preconstruction planning phase and the use of Partnering.