10B — July 26 - August 15, 2013 — Owners, Developers & Managers — Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal
www.marejournal.com
A RCHITECTS & E NGINEERS By Ward McMasters, P.E., Earth Engineering, Inc. The Importance of the Value Process
I
have written recent ar- ticles focused on the im- portance of top notch
vestigations for proposed construction. The title was “Site Investigation Scope of Work – Less Costs Less….. Or Does It” which pointed out the ultimate pitfalls of un- der-investigating a site and poor planning. This article envelopes the application of both concepts in the “Value Process”. We often say in the engi- neering field that geotechni- cal engineering is both an art and a science. Often times
though the science portion gets shortchanged by not performing the most basic requisite of calculations and utilizing presumptive values. Essentially, if the site inves- tigation cost for your project are half of the cost compared to those from a firm with the good reputation, you may be well on your way to receiving a report that contains very conservative findings (bear- ing capacity and settlement estimates). The result is, you have gotten what you paid
for. But wait, you haven’t stop paying yet, because your foundation system costs just doubled. This is what I call confusing the “art” with providing a prepackaged, off the shelf product. Instead, the “art” should be dutifully performing the science and then combining it with experience while in- tegrating the costs into the process. This is the “Value Process”. Yes the value process takes
some time but the benefit to any project can be tremen- dous. To illustrate the point, we recently performed a subsurface investigation for a rather large multistory of- fice building. The test boring results when analyzed cor- related to a certain seismic site classification to be used within the design of the steel structure. Usually this site classification is then just transmitted to the structural engineer and he designs the steel. Instead, we determined that the site classification calculations based on the boring data (science) and our understanding of the geologic site conditions (art) were close enough to warrant a more precise method of testing through geophysical testing methods. The geophysical testing results came back that we were able to upgrade the seismic site classification to a less stringent value which accordingly saved the project tens of thousands of dollars in excess structural steel and seismic bracing. It is also important to note that these savings where several times that of our total investigation fee. This owner received the benefit of the value process but I give credit to the owner for having faith in the process. I am sure that the owner could have hired someone to throw a couple of borings in the ground and write a quick report for a lower fee. This owner didn’t do that because they understood that you then can’t expect the true value process to occur. I think the value process extends to most other fields outside of construction and development. It is impera- tive to business development and longevity today that we impress upon our clients the importance of this process. Anyone involved in providing a quality product or service will surely benefit from es- tablishing their own “value process” concepts. Then it comes down to living them every day. Ward McMasters, P.E. is president of Earth Engi- neering, Inc. ■
C o n s t r u c - tion Inspec- t i o n a n d Testing Ser- vices and the value that is ul t imate ly realized by any project by the same.
Ward McMasters
I have also written a re- cent article on the scope of work for Subsurface In-
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