Preconstruction conferences can save time, money for all

Communication between contractors, inspectors and various city departments is key to finishing a building on time and on budget.

Harlan Hill, project facilitator with the city's Building Development Services Department, said preconstruction conferences increase communication and ease construction worries.

"I think it does a good job of coordination for the developers," Hill said. "Typically the process has been that (developers) will contact each department individually. When you have the pre-application conference, you see all the departments together and each department has a chance to coordinate tasks."

The overlapping of tasks creates increased costs for both the city and the developers.

Carl Plumpe, senior economic development manager with City Utilities, said the conferences help avoid confusion such as one entity laying down a road and another needing to tear it up three days later to put in water pipes.

"The pre-permitting process is a good idea," Plumpe said. "People are able to discuss the details that affect everybody designing work in the area. Anytime you get everybody singing from the same page that's the key."

That's something Walton Construction Vice President Rick Quint knows from experience.

Quint has used the preconstruction conferences offered by the city several times during the last five years.

"It's worked well," Quint said. "The plan review process can also go smoother because they have already been informed of the plans through the review process. A lot of the time, a question raised by one entity affects another entity. The conference irons out a lot of the problems. It speeds it along."

Using the preconstruction conferences offered by the city is an effective way to handle the red tape, Hill said.

"It will not add any red tape it's actually a review to get the red tape on the table before everybody begins," he said. Still "we're getting a hit-and-miss utilization. Most of the larger projects and out-developers, designers, are the heavy users. I find that the local architects don't take advantage of the pre-application process as much as we would like them to."

Hill said some of things that come up in the conferences that can save money include discovering early on that certain utilities are not available to a property, a problem that would have slowed a construction schedule to a crawl.

Other problem items, such as sinkholes or flood plains, also come to light.

"A lot of the time the delays are more important than the money," said Springfield Underground's John Griesemer. "Every construction project is on a time limit. There are so many details on a construction project that can kill the whole project. It's important to make sure that the inspecting personnel from the city are involved early on. It helps them out a lot and speeds the whole process."

Hill said the permitting process can be speeded up by several days with a conference.

"The reason I encourage a pre-application conference is because sometimes the developers and designers are looking for a way to expedite the permitting process," he said. "We have already seen the design and saved time at the permitting stage. I've seen it shave two to four days off the plan review process. Two or three days may mean the difference between being able to open or not open on a particular schedule."

That two or three days could very easily be an additional $2,000 or $3,000 for other requirements, Quint said.

Moving utilities to the other side of a project could cost the owner as much as $15,000, but when the option is redrawing the plans at a cost of $50,000, the owner will pay the $15,000, he said.

"The sad thing is it doesn't have to happen," Quint said. "The real benefactor in the whole (process) is the owner. It is easy for an owner to justify paying more because he wants to change something, but when the city charges more for something, the owner wants to know why. It can be tough to explain."

Builders seeking a pre-application conference have to fill out a single-page application and pay a $60 fee.

The deadline for applications is 5 p.m. Monday for conferences to be scheduled the following week. Also, seven copies of the proposed site plan must be submitted for distribution to the departments involved.