DACM Project Management provided detailed scheduling services, turnover coordination management and value engineering services to the electrical contractor, Bernard's Brothers, during construction of this $4 million project. This project consisted of both renovating the existing facility and constructing an expansion. The project experienced a number of owner generated changes as well as changes necessitated by the construction contract documents not accurately reflecting existing conditions. Many of these changes would have been eliminated if a thorough constructability review had been performed prior to bidding the project. Other facility design changes during construction resulted from changes in the facility owner staff overseeing the project. The scope of work included replacement of the UPS system, which necessitated complete temporary power outages. These power outages were successfully coordinated with facility operational schedules and requirements.

Numerous lessons were learned on this project regarding the startup and turnover of the building control systems. The facility contained many electrical systems, from as simple as time-clock activated devices
to automation systems. Since the renovations occurred while the facility was occupied, the maintenance staff had access to all areas of the existing building when construction personnel were not present. Although the construction contract documents provided for the training of facility maintenance personnel and the commissioning and turnover of the various systems, the facility maintenance personnel were eager to operate the systems as soon as they were installed. This resulted in numerous instances of unauthorized and unplanned adjustments to newly installed systems by individuals which had not been trained in the operation of the systems. As a result, vendor representatives were required to make additional trips to the project location, both to re calibrate systems and provide more frequent instructional sessions than were anticipated in the construction contract documents.

These experiences will directly translate into the assignment of specific responsibilities and establishment of guidelines on your project which will result in achieving an ultimate lower cost and minimizing change orders.