Client
Township
Role
Construction Manager
Under Budget
20%
Below Original Low Bid
43%
The Township is an Illinois municipality with oversight of 34 miles of roadway. This client sought a facility to accommodate their road maintenance vehicles, brine mixing and salt storage.
The Challenge
The township initially retained an architect who indicated that the best route was to rehabilitate an existing wood structure. The architect was paid to prepare construction documents and those documents were distributed for public bid. The bid opening revealed that the cost of the work far exceeded the client’s budget. With the low bid coming in around 40% over that budget, the project was tabled.
Subsequently, one of the Board members contacted Direct Steel and Construction (“Direct”). During that conversation, Direct was invited to meet with staff who would work at the building and an architect. That meeting brought to light several challenges in addition to the budget:
- Building code dictated that any structure over 5000sf must have fire sprinklers, yet the proposed facility did not have access to city water. The cost to accommodate fire sprinklers would be relatively high as a pump would be required.
- The Township sought to store their salt relatively high, however the corrosive material would likely rust nearby metals.
- Given the location, the Township was concerned about the facility’s appearance.
- The Township sought longevity and desired to build environmentally green.
- The Township sought to minimize disturbance of the existing pavement and concrete.
Vehicle bay at the completed facility
What Direct Steel Did
Direct worked with the architect and Township to identify several creative approaches to the above challenges. One solution was to propose three new buildings as opposed to rehabbing the existing wood structure.
The client loved this idea citing it:
- Improved site, building and process efficiencies
- Improved outside site storage to building usage
- Was more “green” AND more cost effective
The Result
The ultimate project … a facility which better met the Township’s goals was completed 20% under budget, and around 43% below the low bid that had tabled the project.
Steel frame going up on site