April 10, 2018
Dinesh Allam (left) and Tim Gattie talk with a construction management class at Arizona State University.
One of our core values was on display during the spring semester at Arizona State University. Nine of our employee-owners served the community and industry by teaching their specialties to graduate students.
“I knew professors at ASU from when I graduated in 2015,” Project Engineer Dinesh Allam said. “We stayed in contact and that led to this opportunity.”
Southwest Building Division employees Jonathan Randall, Curtis Smith and Garren Echols taught construction management students about early stage project planning and conceptual estimating using D-Profiler. Kristen Bejarano, also from Southwest Building, and Jesse McDonald from our Industrial Division presented a lecture on Project Controls, including delay analysis, cost control and schedule management. Two employees from our Concrete Division, Michael Fyffe and Jeremy Jafferis, taught estimating covering the quantity takeoff process using 3D models and developing pricing using production rates.
Tim Gattie from our Transportation Group and Dinesh, a Concrete Division employee, talked about an upcoming trend, data analytics in construction. The lesson won’t be forgotten. The department chair wants to incorporate the topic into course curriculum.
Dinesh said he and his Sundt co-workers would be returning to ASU classes. There’s still much more knowledge to pass along.
“Sundt’s ASU alumni are very involved with the program,” he said.
Sundt Preconstruction Manager Cade Rowley.
Cade Rowley has spent all 20 of his years in the construction industry with Sundt. Cade, the Preconstruction Manager for our Transportation Group, is a registered civil engineer, member of the Board of Directors for the Arizona Chapter of Associated General Contractors of America and AGC’s Board of Governors.
Cade holds a bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from Arizona State University.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
Early in my career, I was on a very difficult project. I had the opportunity to leave Sundt and pursue a less stressful and less time-consuming career with the US Forest Service. Fortunately, I had a strong Project Manager as a mentor who assured me not all projects were the same. I took the risk to stay with Sundt and it played out well for me and my family.
What does a Preconstruction Manager do?
Besides stress out on bid day, I manage all estimating and preconstruction work in our four Transportation Group offices (Tempe, Arizona; Irving, Texas; San Antonio and Salt Lake City). Manage the budgeting and buyout process for all transportation projects. Review and execute subcontract agreements and purchase-order agreements for all Transportation Group work. Collaborate with Preconstruction Managers from Industrial, Building and Concrete to enhance self-perform opportunities across all groups.
What’s unique about preconstruction for transportation work?
Every project we look at is unique due to site conditions and the environment we are working in. The cost of the work varies greatly due to the geology of the earthwork, site conditions such as working in traffic or in the open, existing underground utilities, weather, etc. We also do a lot of design-bid-build commonly referred to as hard-bid work. In many cases we only have three to four weeks to review hundreds of pages of plans and specifications and provide a price that we are financially committed to.
Dog person or cat person?
Definitely a dog person! My wife even had to leave her cat with her parents when we got married.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
No success can compensate for failure in the home. What we do at work is very important and gives us the ability to support our families and the ones we care about, but we have limited time with our children before they grow up. I encourage everyone who works with me to make time for their families. A happy home life usually leads to a more productive work life.
Seen any good movies lately?
I really enjoyed the movie “Only the Brave” about the Granite Mountain Hotshot Crew.
Sundt’s Transportation Group is turning the two-lane roadway into a four-lane divided highway in Central Arizona.
It’s a smart way to build a road.
Sundt is using Intelligent Compaction (IC) for the first time on our Thousand Trails Road improvements for the Arizona Department of Transportation. IC is the compaction of road materials such as soils, aggregate bases or asphalt pavement materials, using vibratory rollers equipped with an integrated measurement system, an onboard computer reporting system and global positioning system-based mapping.
Compaction is necessary to attain high quality and uniformity of pavement materials, ensuring longer-lasting performance.
“Using IC on the project gives us the ability to monitor compaction efforts in real time and let us know when it has obtained the required compaction on the aggregate base course (what’s under the surface layer) as well as the asphalt,” said Senior Project Manager Eric Weston.
Our Transportation Group is turning the two-lane roadway into a four-lane divided highway in Central Arizona between Camp Verde and Cottonwood. The job site is about 20 miles from the award-winning Cordes Junction project we completed in 2013.
The project team will replace the barrier on an existing bridge for future westbound lanes, construct a new bridge for future eastbound lanes and build a new multi-modal pathway. The work consists of seven roundabouts, earthwork, aggregate base, asphaltic concrete pavement, bridge construction, drainage improvements, curb and gutter, sidewalk and other related work.
“The biggest challenge so far has been dealing with traffic on State Road 260,” Eric said. “During the day, SR260 is very busy with local as well as vacation traffic to Cottonwood and Sedona.”
Sundt Virtual Construction Application Developer Ryan Haines.
Sundt Virtual Construction Application Developer Ryan Haines is a Phoenix native and has enjoyed traveling across the U.S. and abroad. He grew up around construction, working for his father’s local general contracting company during summers while in school.
Ryan studied mathematics at Arizona State University, where he had his first experience in computer programming. He has enjoyed pairing these unique experiences at Sundt through construction technology.
What does a Virtual Construction Application Developer do?
Application development for virtual design and construction (VDC) is about efficiency and innovation. To build and consume large 3D models for our construction projects requires sound standards. It also means transferring many thousands of data points, from model creation to quality control in the field. This is where custom digital tools produce efficiency gains.
How does what you do help the construction team once it starts work on a project?
My focus is for our VDC teams to deliver potent results from 3D models. In the Building Group, this means having the right tools to effectively coordinate mechanical, electrical and plumbing design. In Industrial, we are able to track piping components in the 3D model for quality control upon field installation. In Transportation, our VDC teams and estimators can extract phased material quantities based on project schedule. Ultimately, we are providing ways to leverage digital information to mitigate risk and minimize rework.
What does it say about the company that we have the flexibility to put people in departments that better suit their work?
Sundt cares about its employee-owners and is willing to align skills and interests with business needs. Sundt is known for being innovative, and that only continues as we leverage great technology on our projects.
What are your hobbies away from work?
I love being outdoors, including hiking, hunting and fishing. I also like to work with my hands doing welding or helping others with small building projects. I enjoy spending time with my friends and family, including my little nieces and nephew.
What the best advice you’ve received from a mentor or coworker?
Trust God. This advice has already paid great dividends in my life.
Sundt Field Superintendent Frank Islas delivers Sundt’s $25,000 check to the Houston Red Cross.
In response to destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey across eastern and southern Texas, Sundt Construction is donating $75,000 to be divided among Red Cross chapters in Corpus Christi, Houston and San Antonio.
The support will go toward shelter, food, water and clothing for those forced out of their homes by this epic storm. Sundt Field Superintendent Frank Islas made the $25,000 check presentation to the Houston Red Cross on Friday. The other two checks will be delivered next week.
Texas is home to hundreds of our employee-owners. We have offices in El Paso, Fort Worth, Irving and San Antonio.
Harvey made landfall on Aug. 25 near Rockport, Texas as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 mph. Impacted areas measured rainfall totals that ranged from 20 inches to 50 inches. The resulting floods inundated hundreds of thousands of homes, displaced more than 30,000 people, and prompted more than 17,000 rescues. Seventy people in the U.S. were killed by the storm.
Three of our employee-owners from a transportation project in Corsicana took a fishing boat to the Beaumont area last week and rescued five people from flooded homes.
