Precon Team Providing Back-to-School Savings

 |  Education, Innovation
Truckee High Rendering
Truckee High School will be refurbished by Fall 2019.

Almost three years before the scheduled completion of two projects for the Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District, Sundt’s preconstruction team is hard at work finding ways to cut costs and save time.

The school district asked our team, acting as Construction Manager Multi-Prime on the two projects, to develop strategic phasing plans, decide the best way to approach, package and consolidate the work, and anticipate potential constraints before they become issues in the field.

In order to mitigate some of those constraints, our Virtual Design and Construction group, led by Howard “Howdy” Atkinson and Alan Sanoja, laser-scanned Truckee High School. The results revealed several conditions that would have resulted in significant project delays and added costs.

“The scans were used as true as-builts and clashed against the architect’s Building Information Model, allowing us to resolve those problems before they could affect the execution of the job,” said Project Director Tim Blood.

We’re converting existing modular buildings into new construction for classrooms, science labs, elective space, administration and locker rooms. Both projects, including Truckee Elementary School, will undergo significant façade enhancements, technology and mechanical upgrades, site work and ADA upgrades.

Like Construction Manager at Risk, CM Multi-Prime provides an owner the value of preconstruction services including estimating, constructability reviews, logistics, phasing, scheduling and VDC.

“Modernizations, renovations and expansions of this magnitude require a level of phasing, coordination and competent management above what is typically required for a new construction project, particularly when the school needs to remain occupied,” Tim said. “This is the main reason the district opted to award this project to Sundt as a CM Multi-Prime contractor.”

The K-12 projects, located 20 minutes from Lake Tahoe in the scenic Sierra Nevada Mountains, will occur across multiple phases with completion on both scheduled for Fall 2019. Total construction value is expected to be $80.5 million.