Welliver is a well-established, fifth-generation, family-owned construction firm providing construction management, pre-construction, general construction, and design/build services. They serve a diverse range of markets including healthcare, industrial, higher education, K-12 education, and commercial/residential.
Welliver has completed several major projects for Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, and was awarded Cornell’s North Campus Residential Expansion project (NCRE). In anticipation of growing class sizes of a diverse student population from all over the world, Cornell is committed to providing undergraduate students with quality housing options on campus. Welliver provided
preconstruction and construction services for this two‐phase, LEED Gold, 776,000 SF expansion of the student life residential complex.
The fast‐tracked project provides 2,000+ new beds for first year and sophomore students on Cornell’s residential North Campus. The project spans across two sites including five new buildings with numerous lounges, meeting spaces, classrooms and kitchens found throughout all five buildings. In addition, the new expansion includes a 5,000 SF fitness center.
Fast-tracked project with Complex Construction Administration Challenges
Welliver was challenged with the complexity of the NCRE project managing construction across two different sites and five buildings. This project required a substantial coordination effort for submittal and RFI processing across several trade consultants, engineering, and architecture teams. In addition, project team members in the office and field needed continual access to the
most current set of drawings.
Welliver, one of the longest standing Newforma ConstructEx users, knew that the construction administration, document control, and customized configuration options available in Newforma’s cloud hosted solution, ConstructEx could help them better organize and manage their project.
Providing Subcontractors with an Easy Way to Process Submittals and RFIs
Welliver needed a flexible way to keep track of submittals and RFIs while simplifying the submission process for numerous trade contractors. Welliver’s construction administration team needed to provide their subcontractor team with a way to categorize a submittal or RFI so that the information did not have to be entered manually multiple times.
ConstructEx provides several configuration options including the ability to define custom categories. Welliver created custom categories for each site and building. This enabled subcontractors to enter a submittal once and categorize it to the sites and buildings it applied to. By categorizing submittals and RFIs, subcontractors did not have to enter the same submittal or RFI multiple times. Submittals and RFIs were also organized by trade so that subcontractors could easily track the status of their submissions.
In addition, users were added to a ConstructEx project and placed in a role. Welliver added all subcontractors to the ConstructEx “subcontractor” role, which then set controls on workflow and user access. ConstructEx role-based workflows ensured that the subcontractors could only send draft submittals and RFIs to the designated construction administrator on the Welliver team. This
eliminated the need for numerous email exchanges between Welliver’s team and the subcontractors. Subcontractors could then fill in a simple ConstructEx form for a submittal or RFI, which ensured that all required information was sent to the Welliver team the first time.
Instant Access to the Most Current Drawings and Sheets
The project architect was also an experienced ConstructEx user and worked with the Welliver team to keep all drawings up to date in the ConstructEx Document Management module. This module includes a Sheet Index tool which links the most current versions of sheets and drawings. All changes including Addendum, Architect’s Supplemental Instructions (ASIs) and Change Order
Directives (CCDs) were uploaded in the Document Management module and linked to the ConstructEx Sheet Index. This enabled the project team to quickly access and download the most current set of drawings. Since ConstructEx is cloud hosted, project teams could also access the documents in the field.
Automated Workflows and Notifications Shorten the Review Cycle
ConstructEx email notifications and automated workflow options also enabled Welliver to shorten the review cycle. By using the ConstructEx auto-forward function, submittals and RFIs were sent to the appropriate engineer or subconsultant for review while also sending an email notification to the design team lead. The auto-forward option eliminated bottlenecks that may occur if team members are not available to forward submittals and RFIs to the appropriate reviewer.
Email notifications and ConstructEx logs kept the architectural team informed of where the submittal or RFI was in the review process. Email reminders sent out for submittals or RFIs coming due or overdue helped the project team significantly reduced the length of time for reviews.
Estimated Project Savings
Using the ConstructEx ROI Calculator, Welliver processed 2,216 submittals and 1,521 RFIs for the Cornell University North Campus Expansion project. At an average bill rate of $60 per hour for an administrator, this resulted in a savings of 747 hours and $44,844 over the duration of the project. Welliver was able to complete the first phase of the project two months early, and the
second phase was completed 4 months early.
Company Information
Newforma, Inc.
1750 Elm Street, 9th Floor, Manchester, NH 03104, USA
+1 (877) 875-8252
https://newforma.com
