Congratulations to Petticoat-Schmitt Civil Contractors Inc. for winning the Excavation/Site Development Category in NUCA’s First Annual Top Jobs Competition. Three finalists were selected by independent judges from each of 10 categories, and NUCA 2016 Convention attendees voted for the winning project from each category.
Convention attendees selected Petticoat-Schmitt Contractors for the company’s work on the CalAtlantic Homes’ Celestina site construction project, which consisted of developing the infrastructure necessary to support a total of 616 single family residential lots including the roadways, culvert crossings, reuse mains, potable water mains, four lift stations, sanitary force mains, gravity sewer lines and storm water collection/conveyance systems. The project was on an expedited timeframe in order to maximize capture of the housing market in Northern St. Johns County, Florida.
Petticoat-Schmitt was the competitively selected sitework Construction Manager for the project--a very unique approach for a private land developer. Our scope as CM was to select qualified, responsible bidders for each scope of the project, draft bid documents, hold pre-bids and bid openings. We met with the civil engineers, architects and environmental firms during the design phase to produce the best product for the best price, which included value engineering, addressing constructability issues and establishing budgets with each plan iteration. During construction, we managed all contractors, coordinated with the owners' subcontractors, scheduled the project and held progress meetings. There were six primary contractors working directly for us, several which are our competitors, and we were a contractor for two scopes as well.
The biggest challenge on this project was coordination/scheduling with so many contractors and crews on this a large a project. We had a master schedule that was broken out nearly pipe run to pipe run, and updated periodically. But we also had weekly four week look ahead schedules to ensure that crews weren't in each other’s way but were getting their work installed so the next crew had the area available timely. The owner also had a general contractor onsite who was installing landscape/irrigation, and constructing an amenity center and guardhouse, as well as another contractor who was excavating/selling the soil from part of the ponds onsite. Then the electric provider joined the mix as well as the home builders. Coordinating access to them so they could perform their scope and satisfy the owner's needs, while staying on schedule with our own scope in so many areas of the project at once was definitely challenging. Good communication helped us achieve success. We had a full time dedicated superintendent onsite as well as a project manager. There were weekly meetings where all parties gathered to discuss their needs and challenges for the week, and problems were addressed jointly and openly.
“The differentiator of this project was the procurement of the site work services and how we utilized the Construction Management Delivery approach to improve overall contractor performance, value engineer plans during design and maintain market prices for the site work services. The procurement of Petticoat Schmitt as the Construction Manager allowed the project to achieve maximum momentum at the very beginning of construction and to maintain the momentum throughout the construction process because all design documents were well vetted during design.” said "Mo" Rudolph, Vice President of Land Operations for CalAtlantic Homes, “Celestina was a tremendously challenging project and the only way to complete the project was to assemble a team of trusted professionals who worked well together and who understood and were driven to meet the project's success goals. I am proud of the team we assembled and thoroughly enjoyed leading this group of outstanding professionals to a very successful execution of the project,” Rudolph said.
NUCA’s Top Job’s Competition is NUCA’s Annual Recognition Program for Premier Utility Construction and Excavation Projects. Congratulations Petticoat-Schmitt Civil Contractors! Watch NUCA’s website for complete details of NUCA’s 2015 Top Jobs Award winners.
