April - 2023CONSTRUCTIONTECHREVIEW.COM9your visit may bring out many issues to the surface early on. Now armed with the site knowledge, block out time to study the site's civil engineering plans (allow 2 hours or more). Many of the site engineering issues are a result of not connecting the dots. These may include boundary conditions that have not been identified often resulting in the need for retaining walls or grade changes, access points within a building or slab plans that do not reflect on the civil plans, and poor coordination of the plumbing and building plans with the civil drawings. Uncovering the site issues is in direct proportion to the effort spent. Bear in mind that without this effort most of the site issues rarely have simple remedies. In my region of the country, they pour the building pad followed by the parking lot paving and not until the sidewalk construction starts that the issues are discovered and there is rarely a simple solution to fix it. As a construction manager, I would scour over the plans before I bid them with each trade, which is another critical moment in time which often was a two-day event. I was also insistent with each trade about if you see something missing, I better know now and not after the contract is signed if you want to do more work with me. As an engineer, the best site subcontractors thoroughly review each and every grade, inlet, storm drain, and sewer before any work is started. Many site issues never happen by insisting your subcontractors develop the same critical junctures and devotion to detail. The best developers I work with complete plan review to ad nauseum, but they rarely have major site issues. The fact remains, develop the habit to spend time at critical junctures in the process because the problems we face can be overly obvious and the solutions embarrassingly simple. Develop the habit to spend time at critical junctures in the process because the problems we face can be overly obvious and the solutions embarrassingly simpleGreg Patch
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