Trust but verify. It’s a time-honored treaty enforcement principle. It also works well as a basic mantra for BIM (building information modeling)-based building construction. Just ask the Virtual Design & Construction (VDC) Team at Gilbane, a family-owned and operated construction company. Armed with a phase-shift laser scanner, a Gilbane VDC engineering team recently documented measurement discrepancies on a high-profile building construction project.
Gilbane specializes in the high-wire world of at-risk construction. On occasion, Gilbane is called in to rescue troubled projects. Recently the Gilbane VDC team was summoned to do just that. John Tocci, Jr., Director of the VDC Team sets the stage: “The work involves a new corporate campus, the headquarters of a Fortune 500 company. For various reasons, the previous construction manager was terminated. That happened on a Friday. My team took over the job on Saturday. By Sunday afternoon we were laser scanning part of the project in order to reconcile measurements for Monday morning meetings.”
Trade contractors desperately needed reliable benchmarks to accurately set walls, ducts, pipe, conduit locations, and other assemblies. Then there was the elevator shaft. Laser scanning verified two-inch variations on all sides, with the elevator opening three inches smaller than it should be. There was a new sheriff in town and the trades eventually rallied to the Gilbane VDC team.
A point cloud of modeled as-built conditions.
“We’ve had a number of cases where the field team, trade contractors, or architects have argued with us about dimensions of existing conditions, Tocci stated. “We’ve been right every time. It underscores the fact that BIM and VDC, no matter how established we think it is, is still an emerging technology.”
As Gilbane discovered the anecdotal side of laser scanning pales in comparison to the dramatic ROI story. “Our first laser scanner paid for itself in the first week of operation,” Tocci reports. “We conservatively calculate we saved about $150,000 on the first project we scanned.” Just one week? Understandably, that kind of near-instant payback may strike some as too good to be true. Believe it, says Tocci. “If anyone wants to reverse engineer the calculations, they’ll quickly see the payback was actually quite larger,” Tocci reports.
“We assigned super-conservative values to all the ordinary construction tasks that scanning eliminates. We factor-in the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing packages on the job. “One week understates it. With scanning, there are no back charges. No finger pointing. No remediation. It’s all because it was measured right the first time,” Tocci says.
Like many risk-adverse businesses, Gilbane takes a careful, deliberate path to integrating new technology into their business. “The Focus3D Laser Scanner changed the industry,” Tocci declares. “When it came out it was three times less expensive than its competitors. Instead of capturing a single point at once, it can capture 978 million points per second. That’s a radically different scenario. It’s so easy for one person to move it around. It captures levels of detail that you didn’t think it could. “It’s an amazing tool. We now verify and find discrepancies that might bite us later on. All that risk goes away. We couldn’t be happier or more impressed,” Tocci says.
More Information:
FARO Technologies
250 Technology Park
Lake Mary, FL 32746
Phone: 407-333-9911 | Fax: 407-333-4181
aec.faro.com
Related Stories
| Jun 30, 2014
Autodesk acquires design studio The Living, will create Autodesk Studio
The Living, David Benjamin's design studio, has been acquired by Autodesk. Combined, the two will create the Autodesk Studio, which will "create new types of buildings, public installations, prototypes and architectural environments."
| Jun 30, 2014
Report recommends making infrastructure upgrades a cabinet-level priority
The ASCE estimates that $3.6 trillion must be invested by 2020 to make critically needed upgrades and expansions of national infrastructure—and avoid trillions of dollars in lost business sales, exports, disposable income, and GDP.
| Jun 25, 2014
Taking a page from Lean manufacturing for improved design review processes
SPONSORED CONTENT As more building project teams look for ways to collaborate better, technology continues to provide solutions. Yet, as I learned from the experience of one of my customers, choosing the wrong technology can have an underwhelming effect, causing a team to simply swap out old challenges for new ones.
| Jun 18, 2014
Arup uses 3D printing to fabricate one-of-a-kind structural steel components
The firm's research shows that 3D printing has the potential to reduce costs, cut waste, and slash the carbon footprint of the construction sector.
| Jun 10, 2014
Site optimization: Paving the way for smoother land development projects
The biggest cost differential when dealing in site development from one site to another is the earthwork. So, when selecting a site, it is critical to not only take into account the initial purchase price of the property, but also what sort of investment it will take to prep the site for development.
Smart Buildings | Jun 8, 2014
Big Data: How one city took control of its facility assets with data
Over the past few years, Buffalo has developed a cutting-edge facility management program to ensure it's utilizing its facilities and operations as efficiently, effectively, and sustainably as possible.
| May 29, 2014
Turn your pen-and-paper sketches into digital drawings in seconds with this nifty gadget [video]
Funded through Kickstarter, iSketchnote uses a smart pen to instantly digitize hand-written notes and drawings.
| May 28, 2014
Video Blog: How today’s construction firms are bridging the BIM gap
Turner Construction and Parsons Brinckerhoff talk about how BIM has revolutionized the way that they conduct projects, and how technology has allowed them to leverage collaboration in such a way that they can work with decentralized teams.
| May 22, 2014
BIM-driven prototype turns data centers into a kit of parts
Data center design specialist SPARCH creates a modular scheme for solutions provider Digital Realty.
| May 22, 2014
Facebook, Telus push the limits of energy efficiency with new data centers
Building Teams are employing a range of creative solutions—from evaporative cooling to novel hot/cold-aisle configurations to heat recovery schemes—in an effort to slash energy and water demand.
