Pre-Construction Planning & Scheduling Services
Pre-construction planning services can help you bridge the gap between design, engineering, and fabrication. Utilizing collaborative techniques like early engagement, design development, design secondments, and integrated design detailing, DBM Vircon ensures that steelwork can be easily fabricated and erected for cost and scheduling certainty.
By undertaking pre-construction planning early on, the steelwork can be assessed and confirmed during design rather than once construction begins. DBM Vircon can pinpoint cost-effective solutions that may not be feasible once construction commences.
Pre-construction planning helps eradicate the value engineering that is so typical of Design-Bid-Build projects. It helps keep your project on time and on budget, without the aesthetic, size, or functionality compromises that are a necessary evil of the value engineering process.
Decades of Experience in Pre-Construction Planning
With a legacy spanning over five decades, DBM Vircon is your trusted partner for pre-construction planning solutions. Established in 1964, our unwavering commitment to excellence has solidified our reputation as industry leaders in construction planning and scheduling services. Whether you’re embarking on a transportation infrastructure project, designing cultural venues to enrich communities, undertaking government initiatives to improve public services, or constructing commercial and residential developments to meet growing urban demands, our expert team brings unparalleled expertise to the table. From meticulously crafting pre-construction phase plans to conducting feasibility studies and risk assessments, we ensure that your project is primed for success.
Design Assist
Design assist ensures all project stakeholders, including the general contractor, construction team and design team, have a clear, unified understanding of design intent, so that early-stage designs can be modified to achieve optimal steelwork outcomes and minimize costly changes during fabrication and erection.
Working closely with either the fabricator or engineer, we can help evolve your design and provide fabrication and erection solutions, whether it be modularization of the steelwork, full trusses that need to be craned into position or bridge geometry. We can even suggest design solutions, like appropriate venting requirements for finishes such as galvanizing.
LOD 400 Connected Model
The engineering model (LOD 200) can be developed to approximately 80% complete before it is handed over to DBM Vircon to lock in steel prices and expedite procurement. We can then develop an LOD 400 connected model that confirms factors like actual steelwork locations, clearances required, the types of welds and weld preparations to be used, and material thicknesses.
Unlike LOD 200 or 300 models, an LOD 400 model can actually be used for fabrication. Highly accurate construction job erection plans can be generated from an LOD 400 model, virtually eliminating the standard RFI procedure.
Constructability Assessment
During our constructability assessments, we work through every aspect of framing plans to ensure that steelwork can be easily fabricated and erected. This locks in cost and scheduling certainty. All steel members are reviewed for profile, location, and elevation and tagged in the model as approved materials, so that highly accurate erection plans can be generated.
- Bolt clearance
- Weld accessibility
- Tolerance checks
- Crane reach and type
- Beam connection type and clearance
- Erection schemes and temporary structures
- Modular construction
- Panelization
When these elements are assessed during pre-construction, cost-saving alterations can be made to the design before it’s too late—before the steel is ordered. For instance, a member size can be increased, rather than introducing more material or creating additional connections.
