The Garrison Report #2008-10

Three Heroes

Listen to the audio version of this report here

Hero may seem strong to some, but I think it's richly deserved. If they played for the Minnesota Twins and hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to win a baseball game, people would call them a hero. Yet these three gentlemen did something more important to the community of Minneapolis than hit a home run. They rebuilt a bridge in record time and every day they salvaged by doing it right, they saved the community more than $400,000 in transportation costs alone. And this doesn't take into account the cost impacts on the businesses that rely on the bridge.

The idea that someone is able to rebuild a bridge in less than fourteen months from the date of its collapse is almost too much to believe. Where I live in Florida, the construction time alone to rebuild the I 95 bridge over the main road in my town was approximately two and half years. I think the team in Minneapolis lapped our local team several times. While I'm sure a lot of people contributed to the success of this project, three people's leadership was clearly important for its success. Jay Hietpas, P.E., is the design-build program manager for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. His commitment to the design-build approach was instrumental in this project's success. Jon Chiglo, the I 35W Bridge project manager for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the on-site representative for the state, was critical in keeping the process moving at high speed. Peter Sanderson, the project manager for the Flatiron-Manson project team, certainly carried a huge burden in completing thisproject way ahead of the original aggressive schedule of December 24, 2008.

During my interviews with these three individuals, the information that came forth was very interesting. For example, when I questioned Hietpas on why the Department of Transportation selected the design-build approach, he almost laughed. He responded that if they had decided to go with the conventional design-bid-build approach, they would be going out for bids in September of 2008 instead of opening the bridge.

For those who have been reading The Garrison Report for years, you know that I've always stressed the importance of innovation, communication and collaboration as answers to the challenges facing the construction industry. In my conversation with Jon Chiglo, I asked what he contributed to the great success of the project. He attributed a great deal of achievement to the high level of quality communication. He even went on to say that, on project of this nature, the contractor, the design team and the owner all colocate. His feeling was that not only did this improve the speed of communications, but it increased the quality of those communications.

This high level of communication led to greater collaboration because it allowed the design team, the contractor and owner to overlap their efforts. This resulted in increased innovation that brought forward substantial benefits in both time and cost savings.

From the contractor's perspective, it was still a treadmill that was running almost out of control, reports Peter Sanderson. Yet despite all the challenges, which Sanderson said appeared almost constantly, the project has continued to beat its schedule. To a great extent, the success is due to the can-do attitude of Sanderson and his team. They focused on how to do things the fastest way possible. A key example is that forms were planned to be used only once. In other words, if they had six piers, they showed up with forms for six piers so they could all be worked on that same time.

When Sanderson was asked what advice he would have for other contractors on this type of project, he advised them to get the design approved as quickly as possible. Despite the fact that he felt the owner was extremely cooperative, this was a major challenge and constantly caused problems. When you listen to Sanderson, he clearly is not claiming to have pitched a perfect game, but there is no doubt that he did throw a shutout for the win.

I'm not attempting to argue that design-build is the solution to every construction problem, but the point I want to make is that collaboration, communication and innovation are what's needed. It just happens that design-build often produces those kinds of results. It would be easy for me to ramble on about this incredible feat for pages, but instead why not let our three heroes tell their own stories? I suggest that everyone listen to the three interviews available in the single link below. I'm sure you will find them very interesting.
My hat is off to the entire St. Anthony Falls Bridge team.

 

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