Preconstruction trends

Expected in 2019

Preconstruction is an important method of construction. In the design-bid-build process of construction project delivery, the project is completely designed before construction starts. Precon is used to define construction costs, risks, schedules, and overall scope of each project. KBD Group has been providing preconstruction services since 1964, and has experienced decades of industry changes, yielding the expertise needed to offer clients the best options for their construction projects.

WHAT IS PRECONSTRUCTION?

Preconstruction services are generally used in planning and organizing a construction project before the construction begins. These services are often referred to as preconstruction or precon, which eventually becomes an evaluation of the design relative to cost, suggestions of alternative methods, and procedures to reduce cost and the schedule of the project. In the construction bidding process, the contractors’ construction cost estimators prepare the estimate and form the bid, based on the documents received by the client. The pre-bidding process, measured in weeks, will be sent to the client to review when completed.

FIVE PRECONSTRUCTION TRENDS

As the economy changes and evolves, construction strategies and technologies must change as well to meet new economic standards and to improve efficiency. As 2019 begins, let’s take a look at the five Preconstruction trends we expect to see moving forward throughout the year:

1. Utilizing BIM for quantity Surveying.

We can expect to see BIM used for quantity surveying. Once the technology is perfected, this process will reduce time, provide more accurate take-offs, reduce errors, increase speed for deliverables and provide improved visualization.

2. Trend towards collaborative cloud based estimating.

As cloud computing becomes more relevant being adopted by many corporations, we can expect to see cloud based collaborative estimating solutions in the near future. This system will allow employee to perform estimating calculations on one document at the same time reducing time and errors.

3. More difficult to find sub-contractors interested in what once would have been enticing jobs:

Due to the high volume of projects and previous experiences, we can expect Sub Contractors to start turning down jobs. This will be due to their workload, lack of personnel, not willing to work with certain clients, lack of materials/supply chain, and labor issues.

4. Less design information. Less time to complete proposals.

We are starting to experience clients optimize their documentation in requesting less information for RFP submittals. Because of this shift, clients are requesting quick turnarounds decreasing RFP deadlines.

5. Spend more time face to face time with Subcontractors and owners to generate and maintain relationships.

Relationship with contractors will go beyond the jobsite. As selecting the right subs becomes more difficult, advance relationship with subcontractors will help secure more jobs in the future.