Project Execution and Management Excellence through Highly Effective Communication and Change Management

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1 Category: 5 Best Building Project Specialty Contractor ($2 - $6M) Specialty Contractor: Weifield Group Contracting Project Name: Emily Griffith Technical College / DPS Project Helping Denver Public Schools (DPS) consolidate three entities the DPS administration offices, a new 400-student downtown elementary school, and the 8,500-student Emily Griffith Technical College/companion high school was what Weifield achieved with the completion of our design-build project at 1860 Lincoln Street. DPS spent over $71M on the new 14-story building, which has multiple purposes floors one and 14 are shared, floor 2 houses the Downtown Denver Expeditionary School, floors 3-6 house the Emily Griffith Technical College and companion high school, and floors 7-12 house the DPS administration. Weifield started design process for the project in March, 2013, and had boots on the ground by June. Our role in the project was to help DPS realize its goals to improve its learning environments through a move to its very first high-rise educational campus that included natural light and efficiently-regulated temperature. General Contractor, PCL, partnered with Weifield immediately at the start of the project due to our successful working history. Solutions of Special Projects: Continual Adaptation Around Changing Requirements The sheer scope of the project and the fact that it was a mixed-use building required Weifield to adapt to continuously changing/unforeseen requirements and schedule interruptions, and develop special solutions to circumvent them. Weifield performed all electrical work within the entire building, so we developed three voluminous drawing packages that included a different plan set for each tenant, for a total of three (3) 600-page plan sets. These plan sets changed nearly 50 times throughout the course of the project to incorporate new requirements as we went deeper into the project such as new rooms, new wall layouts, new fire safety systems needed due to the new wall layouts, etc. There were also multiple redesigns requested by the DOTS consulting/it department at the middle and end of the project so Weifield had to build around these changes while still trying to adhere to the same schedule. The original plan was for the entire project to complete in August of 2014, but due to these changes, the plan changed to a phased occupancy strategy.

2 There were a few unavoidable schedule slips that caused the team to doubt whether certain phases could be accomplished an example was water damage that was caused when one of the internal components failed, which took out two floors and some associated fire devices. However, this incident was rectified and did not impact the overall plan. Due to changing requirements, we had to quickly develop turnkey, full workaround solutions but we never took shortcuts which helped us to avoid bigger problems, later. Project Execution and Management Excellence through Highly Effective Communication and Change Management Weifield achieved excellence in project execution through a highly communicative team approach and expert change navigation. At the height of the project, Weifield had staffed up to a 44-man team. Due changing project requirements which started early on our goal was to proactively tackle issues before they became major problems. We became the driving force behind the project, leading twice-weekly meetings across the entire project team to ensure schedule adherence. These meetings became more frequent toward the end of the project phases. We also held daily Weifield team huddles; Field Supervisor Nate Anderson delegated leaders on each floor and each floor s team would meet every morning to discuss issues. The floor leaders would then meet with Nate twice/week to relay information back to him. The greatest thing we did on this project was the morning huddles; this helped ensure everyone was on-task and could address problems as they arose. With respect to construction excellence, there was an open scope of work so Weifield developed the best electrical solution we could, incorporating the existing systems. All major components were able to be reused including the existing transformers, generators, panel boards and feeders. There were a few budgetary struggles; for example, we had to build onto the existing bus duct system using whatever we had. But through testing, we validated that the all existing systems were safe.

3 As this was a mixed-use building, from a design side, many questions arose how do you control access to different user groups, how do the security features/functions get implemented, what were the various needs of the different clients, etc. We had to design to three main end user groups. There were several challenging one-offs that we had to design around. For example, Emily Griffith wanted to use old sewing machines they ve used for years, so the electrical requirements needed to adapt to older equipment e.g., we needed to conduct additional offsite field research to identify cord configurations and electrical requirements. Many such modifications to the electrical design required that power be brought from as many as nine floors away to power the owner equipment due to the limitations of the mostly existing electrical infrastructure and floor plan. We were continually reacting to changing customer needs. Construction Innovations/State-of-the-Art Advancement through Leading Technologies and a Truly Custom Electrical Solution For this project, Weifield used Trimble Total Station and Trimble's Point Creator Pro for the electrical layout. Utilizing Trimble Systems, a single skilled worker can accurately lay out hundreds of install points in a day. Trimble enabled us to take digital 3D positional data to the project, resulting in a productive and accurate jobsite layout. Additionally, DPS wanted the finished high-rise space to look as nice as possible, and their solution for doing so was to blow out the bottom or move the inner walls out, to gain more space inside the building. So, we adjusted our electrical design around this new strategy. Because of the various one-offs, we designed a truly custom electrical solution from every angle. We had to know the building envelope, field all the one-offs, and design the power infrastructure/specifications to meet them. And using a combination of our people, processes, and technologies we re proud to say, Weifield did just that. Environmental/Safety: Incorporating Energy Efficiency and Ensuring Safety and Code Compliance With respect to environmental/safety, Weifield completed 49,000 man hours but had no safety incidents or lost hours for the project. Weifield understands the importance and impact of safety

4 risks and is committed to reducing or eliminating the impact on our ability to provide excellent service to our clients, on every project. Weifield s corporate safety program requires Field Superintendents to implement effective safety procedures throughout the duration of every project, and a primary focus of our Project Safety Plan (PSP) is achieve Target Zero, which is a goal of experiencing no (zero) incidents and no (zero) injuries with work tasks. Our PSP outlines all safety and health requirements developed by Weifield, focusing on relevant issues of the project. We also had to bring things up to code within the high-rise; for example, we did extensive testing with the existing generators and made sure all life safety tied into existing systems. Regarding lighting design, not all of the fixtures were LED s; most were T5 s. The owner had no green /environmental requirements (mostly because of budget), however, Weifield as a standard follows environmental practices wherever possible. We implemented a solution for this project incorporating energy-efficient control lighting systems and controlled loads. Excellence in Client Service and/or Contribution to the Community: The First DPS Downtown Elementary School and a Beautiful New Technical College! DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg and Mayor Michael Hancock described this project as a major boost to the vitality of the city s core that could also save the district between $5 and $15 million over the next five years through increased efficiencies. The DPS was able to bring an elementary school downtown and provide an upgraded facility for the formerly seriously overcrowded Emily Griffith Technical College. Emily Griffith Technical College now has a new location that will enable Colorado s largest technical college to expand capacity in high demand career-training programs. With respect to client testimonials, near the end of the project when the owner s Quality Control team came and walked through project, the Quality Control representative said that it was the best project that his team had walked this year. PCL was also highly satisfied with Weifield s performance on this project, although they already had high confidence in our abilities due to past projects.

5 The main question throughout the project was how we were going to meet the budget as it was a guaranteed maximum price project; therefore, we couldn t use a higher-end architectural or cosmetic fixture package yet it had to be acceptable to DPS requirements. We were able to arrive at a best fit lighting package that produced a balance of functional lighting with focus placement of decorative fixtures. Weifield ended up achieving a finished building that was highly functional and energy-efficient, as well as aesthetically pleasing to the owner. 01 Weifield Group Contracting Emily Griffith Technical College-DPS Project

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