In-House MEPFP Planning Capabilities

Adding Measurable Value To Complex Construction Projects
By Paul Piazza, P.E.

Complex construction projects involving specialized Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection (MEPFP) systems pose significant challenges in risk management, quality assurance and cost control. Today’s healthcare facilities, data centers, renovations and expansions of schools and other facilities that must remain open during construction typically require highly specialized MEPFP environments to support their operations. MEPFP systems can take up 40 percent or more of the budget for these types of projects, making the proper planning and cost-effective construction of these systems even more important.

Because of the significant impact of MEPFP systems on these types of jobs, the early involvement of seasoned MEPFP experts can usually make a meaningful and measurable difference on the project’s outcome. S. M. Wilson has recently added in-house MEPFP resources to help in the evaluation, budgeting, risk reduction and quality management of the MEPFP systems in the company’s healthcare, educational and data center construction projects.

These projects require a significant level of preconstruction planning, coordination and MEPFP design review by the construction manager and the subcontractor team to identify and resolve potential problems before construction begins. Some of the key areas of planning include:

• Review of subcontractors’ scope of work and bids
• Review of designs against the owner’s requirements
• Review of drawings to determine overall construction impacts of each MEPFP system
• Development of scheduling and phasing to best integrate subcontractors’ roles
• Integration of new MEPFP with existing MEPFP systems with minimal impact
• Development of budgets that hold up throughout the project

“Because of the complexity of these projects, strong cooperation and communication between the design team, the construction manager and subcontractors adds measurable value,” said Paul Piazza, P.E., Director of MEPFP Services at S. M. Wilson & Co. “Pre-construction problem solving and planning with the client’s goals in mind will lead to better outcomes and happier owners.”

Rapid project delivery and the addition of measurable value to these complex projects are realized by maximizing the input of all the players in the process. This means overlapping the project’s design and construction activities as much as possible, which occurs best when project management is strongly committed to the importance of early MEPFP planning.

Community Health Network of Indiana is utilizing S. M. Wilson’s MEPFP Services in the planning and construction of a new $88 million renovation and expansion of Community Hospital South in Indianapolis. The 155,000-square-foot project will create a new five-story patient tower, an expansion of the central plant and renovation of more than 103,000 square feet of the existing hospital’s facilities.

“We got involved early in the project by reviewing the design team’s plans, helping the hospital understand the risks involved and finding solutions to reduce the project’s overall cost,” Piazza said. “We are also developing efficient construction schedules and phasing to keep the facility and its systems running without interruption to patient care.”

In order to meet all of the MEPFP needs, S. M. Wilson worked closely with RTKL Associates, Inc., the project architect; BSA Life Structures, the civil, mechanical, structural and electrical engineer and subcontractors Leach and Russell, Bright Sheet Metal and Miller Eads Electric.

“We needed detailed scheduling as early as possible to identify opportunities to be proactive in elimination of lead times by identifying early release document packages,” said Mark Hayden, Project Manager General Services Administration at Community Health Network. “Opportunities to improve value come from integrated understandings. S. M. Wilson provided design-assist activities that shortened the overall delivery time schedule. We know we will end up with a better job, sooner, and at better value.” The Sisters of Mercy Health System retained S. M. Wilson to build a $34 million Enterprise Data Center in Washington, Mo. The two–story building will encompass 42,500 square feet and will serve as the primary corporate data center for Mercy Health System hospitals and medical centers nationwide.

“Our extensive pre-construction planning has involved extensive input from the organization’s IT department leadership, its facilities management department and the project’s CM/GC, architect and data center planning consultants,” Piazza said. “We have had to plan for this facility’s current needs, as well as its future needs.”

S. M. Wilson worked closely with Arcturis, the architecture firm, and MEPFP contractors C&R Mechanical, Guarantee Electrical, Torrisi Plumbing and Ahern Fire Protection for MEPFP coordination. Through team coordination with the MEPFP contractors, 3-D modeling was used to determine the layout of all services. More than 400 ‘collisions’ were discovered among the systems. Several meetings with all team members present resulted in the elimination of these collisions. By eliminating these issues prior to construction, many field labor hours were saved, and these savings were passed back to the owner.

Piazza noted that finding viable and cost-effective alternatives to the original design of MEPFP systems is also a very important outcome of the MEPFP planning process.

“Oftentimes we can identify all the challenges in the planning process and develop cost-saving alternatives to implement during construction,” Piazza said. “In other instances, the MEPFP team can come together very quickly during the construction phase to collaborate on a quick solution to an unplanned obstacle that arises. This would not be possible if the team had not already worked together extensively in the planning phase.”

Having in-house MEPFP expertise has enabled S. M. Wilson to create better partnerships with the architects, engineers and subcontractors while enabling the firm to more efficiently manage larger and increasingly more complex construction projects. With the addition of Piazza, S. M. Wilson becomes one of the few construction management companies in the St. Louis area to offer this level of expertise in-house. Piazza has 17 years of MEPFP construction experience, a B. S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla, now known as the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and is a Registered Professional Engineer.