September 15, 2008

Protect the Project

Conceptual estimating technology helps the Texas Army National Guard stay in budget.

The federal government can be one of the most unforgiving of owners when it comes to

project budgets. Projects that fall within its jurisdiction are monitored with a scrupulous

eye, and those that don’t stay within the allocated resources run the risk of being

terminated.

Of course the key to keeping an eye on the budget is properly managing the estimating

phases. The problem with the traditional estimating methods, however, is they do not

provide the level of detail needed to keep all parties involved on the project—particularly,

the owner—on the same page.

This was precisely the case regarding a government-funded project in El Paso, Texas.

Just when it looked like this project was in jeopardy of getting off schedule and

exceeding the budget, the project team called in the reserves in the form of a new method of gathering cost-

estimation data through detailed data-rich models.

Early Warnings

Earlier this year, The Texas Army National Guard, www.agd.state.tx.us/army, Austin, Texas, commissioned a

project for a new reserve center and vehicle maintenance facility in El Paso, Texas.

The project encompasses a main facility area that includes general office and personnel support areas, while

ancillary facilities include maintenance work bays, military vehicle parking, site security measures, and access

roads.

A project of such magnitude requires tight coordination of multiple contractors, engineers, architects, and

estimators. This specific project is a state-owned facility funded by a cooperative agreement by the

government.

As a government-funded project, the 243,000-sq.ft. facility was required to continually meet the federal

funding requirements. The project falls under the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) from the DoD (U.S.

Dept. of Defense), www.defenselink.mil, Washington, D.C., which is used for organizing the installation

infrastructure of facilities and ships that are in the jurisdiction of the DoD, namely any infrastructure in the

United States.

The program examines the quality of infrastructure and aims to save billions of dollars on facilities annually.

The legally mandated selection criteria determine which installations should be closed or realigned.

Within BRAC, AFRCs (Armed Forces Reserve Centers) need to be closed or realigned when the missions of the

installation have ceased or been relocated.

In El Paso, Texas, the plan under BRAC is to relocate all units from five closed or realigned AFRCs to a new

AFRC with a Consolidated Equipment Concentration Site and Maintenance Facility.

This new project will provide a training facility with administrative, education, assembly, library, and a

learning center. The facility will also have a vault, weapons simulator, barracks areas, and physical fitness

areas for units. In addition, a maintenance shop will have work bays and maintenance administrative support.

Construction is just beginning on this facility. However, getting to the start date of construction was a bumpy

process. In particular was the challenge of getting the upfront design and estimate to continually meet the

government’s budget.

Jacobs Engineering Group, www.jacobs.com, Pasadena, Calif., which is the design firm on this project, began

working with estimators at Apex Cost Consultants, www.apexcost.com, Dallas, Texas, to develop and prepare

the conceptual estimate.

Claude Eudaric, president, Apex Cost Consultants, says the normal procedure for the cost estimator is to first

examine the type of building it is, and then develop a historical database.

“The historical database has all of the project types that we have done and we go in and we pick a similar

project type that we have done within the last six months to a year and what we do is we extrapolate what

the cost of this project would be based on the historical data that we have,” says Eudaric.

According to Eudaric, since it is a government project, the government sets the budget. And to set the

budget, the government uses the Form 1391, which is a government form used to estimate the cost of the

project. Still, Apex had to do conceptual budgets for the 10% and 35% phases of the estimate to verify the

predicted estimate from the government.

It didn’t take long before problems arose. Just 10% into the conceptual budget phase Apex Cost Consultants

found its numbers had exceeded the government’s budget and the project was in danger of getting off

schedule.

“Initially we turned in the estimate and (it) said that the project was 30% over budget, based on the 1391,”

says Eudaric. “So the first thing they did was they shot the messenger. They felt like we hadn’t provided them

enough backup data. How could we make such a determination without details and analysis of the project?”

Apex was positive, based on current market conditions, that the 30% overage was indeed correct.

“If you give a client the number they think it should be and then the project is off the bid and it blows up,

then the liability is on us because we gave them a number that was inaccurate,” says Eudaric.

At this point all parties were upset the project had exceeded the government’s budget. It reached a turning

point where the project had to be reevaluated with a new method of conceptual estimating.

Mission Recall

A few months later, Eudaric received an email from Jacobs Engineering asking for a new way to reevaluate the

project. Going into the 35% design, the team needed to convince the owners that the cost estimates were

accurate and help with creating the budget for this project.

Apex knew this required getting everyone involved—from the architect to the contractor to the government—

on the same page. To do so it needed to provide detailed information on the project’s estimate in a way

everyone could understand.

Apex decided to shift its processes from traditional methods of cost estimation to a new way of gathering

information through data-rich models. There began the search for a new technology solution to give all project

members a more detailed, macro view of cost estimation through modeling.

For the 35% phase, Apex approached Jacobs with the idea to use a new piece of technology that would help

bring the team within budget and essentially get the project back on schedule.

“I had gone to a demonstration and saw this three-dimensional software working,” says Eudaric. “And what

was so unique about it is it was creating an estimate in realtime. So as (it) was modeling this hypothetical

building, on the right hand side were all the costs.

“And what the software does is it allows you to build a cost model, but to also build it based on a virtual

building where you have dimensions (and) you have parameters. In other words, you are building this building

in virtual space and then putting a price to it.”

The software was DProfiler from Beck Technology, www.beck-technology.com, a technology division within

The Beck Group, www.beckgroup.com, Dallas, Texas, which addresses the macro view of the project.

According to Stewart Carroll, chief operating officer, Beck Technology, BIM (building information modeling)

can be categorized in two ways—a macro view and a micro view.

Much has been said in the industry regarding the value of BIM. At its core, BIM is a process in which multiple

members of a project gather the same detailed information from intelligent models. More specifically, the

macro view represents the big-picture view of the early phases of a project while the micro view comes a bit

later, answering the detailed questions of how to design, document, and build a project.

Products on the market that address the micro view include Revit from Autodesk, www.autodesk.com, San

Rafael, Calif. Bentley Architecture from Bentley Systems, www.bentley.com, Exton, Pa. and ArchiCAD from

Graphisoft, www.graphisoft.com, Budapest, Hungary. All of these technologies help contractors design,

document, and build the project.

Less common and newer to the construction industry are technologies for the macro view. According to

Carroll, contractors looking at the earliest phase of a project will likely ask themselves the ‘if’ and ‘what’

questions including:

� If I build this building, what are the ramifications?

� What are operating costs from an energy perspective?

� What are the lifecycle costs?

� What is the first cost of construction?

� What are all the assumptions we are going to plug in based on our history?

In conceptual estimating, estimators must make these key and critical assumptions in order to create a

complete estimate of design, according to Carroll.

DProfiler can help contractors create an accurate cost estimate in the planning and conception cost estimate

phases of a project and answer the key questions of ‘if’ and ‘what’ early on in the project.

“We focus on the early phases of getting teams together, clarifying assumptions, building a graphical

representation,” says Carroll. “Not to design, but to get everybody on the same page in terms of description of

scope, and out of (that) scope comes cost.”

In addition to providing improved team collaboration and communication, the technology also provides greater

accuracy of project data. DProfiler provides a graphical representation of all the estimate information so if

something doesn’t line up or was miscalculated, DProfiler can easily recognize the mistake. The product also

gives contractors the ability to perform quantity takeoff tasks in a significantly reduced amount of time.

One specific feature includes an integrated energy analysis, which studies energy cost impact of change,

analyzes LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) qualifications, and determines HVAC

(heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) initial cost. DProfiler also includes RSMeans Data, which means the

construction estimate can reflect the average U.S. cost of any major city’s indexes.

The macro view of BIM is becoming more important because being able to look at 3D (three-dimensional)

models of detailed information on the estimate—as opposed to basic cost estimates in spreadsheets—gives a

visual element to the estimate. This helps any project member, regardless of experience using estimates, to

see and understand the scope of the estimate.

This was an important element in the Texas Army National Guard project, providing all project members with

the scope so everyone could understand where the project was in the conceptual estimate process.

Saving the Project

With the help of the technology, Apex and Beck did the MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) scope and

the architectural, structural, and site scope for the reserve center in El Paso, Texas.

Brent Pilgrim, project cost manager, The Beck Group, worked closely with Eudaric to help develop the

documents with models and graphical elements used to show the MEP and architectural, structural, and site

scope.

“What DProfiler does and the value that it brings is it provided such a level of detailed information that

everyone was able to comprehend it and digest it and understand why the project was over budget

understand where different costs were allocated,” says Pilgrim. “So we did the design criteria, the images, the

cost estimate, and we provided the deliverable to the team.”

Through DProfiler, the team still found the conceptual estimate to be 20% above the government’s budget,

compared to the 30% Apex originally presented.

To help explain why the project still exceeded the budget, this deliverable was brought into a full-day meeting

where everyone involved in the project was able to review cost, design, and scope.

“We brought in the stakeholder, the owners, the Texas Army National Guard, people as far as Washington,

D.C., were in here to look at the project,” says Eudaric.

By displaying the detailed project information from DProfiler, everyone involved with the project was able to

see where the project had exceeded the budget and the group could begin to take the necessary steps to

bring the project back into budget.

Apex needed to value engineer the project, making changes to the building’s scope in terms of materials,

functions, and components. This is a process that Eudaric says would normally take weeks to complete.

“With DProfiler (the) time factor goes away because now that you have this three-dimensional model, you can

actually run what (are) called what-if scenarios on the model in realtime in front of the client as you are

discussing the various changes,” says Eudaric.

Since the budget number on this project was $45 million, the team was able to add components back into the

building until the team reached the allotted amount. From there, the team turned the other components into

add alternates, which are components of the project that are not needed for the building to function.

Full Speed Ahead

By the end of the day, the team was able to get the project down to a base bid and create add-alternate items

that allowed them to add scope back in as cost was reallocated or the budget changed.

Based solely on this full-day meeting the government approved the project and allowed it to move forward,

according to Pilgrim.

From that point the project began to move smoothly through the remainder of the estimating phases. The

team continued using DProfiler for the 65% phase of the estimate. Yet since the estimate move passed the

conceptual environment and into a more detailed environment, the project team also applied traditional

estimating to this phase.

For traditional cost estimating Apex uses Sage Timberline Office, www.sagetimberlineoffice.com, Beaverton,

Ore., and integrates it with DProfiler.

“We did a final review of the 95% drawings,” says Eudaric. “The client was very happy with the results, and

the project (was) issued to go for bid (near the end of July). So everything was completely pulled together.”

Comparing the original cost-estimating methods with the BIM method, the visual elements of the model

helped the team understand information more thoroughly, according to Pilgrim.

“Traditionally, I don’t think people take the time or have the capacity to understand a very dry, traditional

cost estimate,” continues Pilgrim. “(DProfiler) gives a value to the project that allows the team members to

make decisions and understand it and comprehend it and digest it.”