Day: October 26, 2021

She and I sat in the room, and I was beaming. I was like, ‘Wow, we’re actually going to build this thing.’

Fact: civil engineering is everywhere. We see it in our roads, bridges, airports, and practically all public and private infrastructure projects. Civil engineering is one of the most important fields we have today, and it will continue to be vital for as far as we can see into the future.

Here to talk more about this topic is Jon Turner, President and Principal Engineer atPhoenix Civil Engineering. We recently caught up with Jon and had a lively conversation about the past, present, and future of civil engineering.

Tell us a little bit about Phoenix Civil Engineering and what you specialize in.

We’re a small design and engineering firm and we do civil engineering design work. Our work consists of pipeline design, water, wastewater, recycled water, and storm drain systems; pump station designs, road rehabilitation projects. We also do a lot of pipeline rehabilitation projects. We design projects using trenchless technologies, which is primarily, lining, pipe bursting, horizontal directional drilling, that kind of thing.

We’re five people and my vision is that our firm remains lean, mean, and nimble. We’re able to get in and get out. We’re efficient. And efficiency is what our strength is.

Ninety-nine percent of our clients are municipalities — they’re typically water agencies, wastewater agencies, cities, counties, and special districts.

We also help some of our clients if they need assistance with pre-planning or a feasibility study of their projects. Some of our clients use us all the way through construction because we also provide construction management or design services during construction for their projects.

I have a very lean and mean group which I’m incredibly proud of. We’re a family business with five employees, yet we’re able to take interesting projects of all sizes. We do $5,000 projects for some clients, but we’re also entering into the construction phase of a $21 million pump station and pipeline project that we designed. So, there’s quite a range for the jobs we handle.

Walk us through your career and what led you to becoming President/Principal Engineer.

I’ll give a shout-out to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. That’s where I went to school. I was born in Ventura, went to Ventura College for a couple of years, transferred to Cal Poly, then got hired by Boyle Engineering Corporation. They’ve since been acquired by AECOM.

In terms of my career background, I worked for a national consulting firm at the beginning of my career, where we did everything, including architecture, mechanical, civil, electrical, and instrumentation. I quit that firm and I started working for a local municipality in Ventura County. I was the Deputy Public Works Director and then Interim Public Works Director.

So, I worked in the public sector for four years, and then in 2010, I started Phoenix Civil Engineering with my wife, Roz. She runs the office and pretty much manages everything that I don’t do. We also have our employees who kick tail and take names.

s construction evolves, how do you see your role changing?

I’ll preface this by pointing out that there’s a real struggle right now to find talented individuals for engineering and construction roles. And this isn’t new. Back in the early 2000s, it seemed like everybody wanted to be a dot-commer or they wanted to sell real estate. From my perspective, it looked like there weren’t a lot of people graduating in civil engineering.

Fast-forward to the mid-to-late 2000s, and there seemed to be almost a disappearance of people getting into engineering. And then the recession hit, and all of the seasoned contractors hung up their tool belts and retired — or decided to do other things. So we lost all of that great intelligence and talent in the hands-on part of our industry.

Now, we’re seeing similar trends. It’s tough to hire and find people these days; I’m hearing from contractors, and they’re struggling with the same thing. They just can’t find people to swing a hammer or run the shovel or run the equipment. They’re hurting for talent. Add the fact that we just went through a pandemic and there’s also a shortage of materials. The result is that everybody’s on edge.

All that being said, I think we are going to see a resurgence in the next 5 to 10 years. People will get back into the field and take an interest in it because they’ll see that civil engineering is the broadest of all engineering disciplines. When people drive to work — civil engineering is allowing that to happen. When folks are able to drink out of their tap, and flush their toilet, and have a house — all of that is civil engineering. The field has a huge breadth of opportunity.

So, that’s what I’m seeing. There’s probably going to be a lot of pain for a couple of years, but things will eventually untangle, and we’ll come back much stronger. After all, engineering is known for innovation. We’re going to see more of that, as well as automation. For instance, we see contractors on iPads, video conferencing, and other technologies. I think all that will continue going forward.

What project are you most proud of working on in your career? Why?

It would definitely be the project I mentioned earlier, the $21 million pump station and pipeline. I’m forever grateful that the client had confidence in a five-person office with all of our consultants that we used as subs to design this and get it put out. It’s mind-blowing.

She and I sat in the room, and I was beaming. I was like, “Wow, we’re actually going to build this thing.”

It was a labor of love, though. There were days when I wanted to kill it and there were days when it was trying to kill me. It was a very long project, duration-wise. There were a lot of challenges and lots of twists and turns, so it’d be a great novel.

But now the project is out and I went to the precon with my associate engineer. She and I sat in the room, and I was beaming. I was like, “Wow, we’re actually going to build this thing.”

So yes, it was a lot of fun. My staff would probably kill me if I took on another one right away, but still, it was a lot of fun.

What are the biggest challenges you face in your role?

Communication is key. I can’t stress it enough. But it’s one of those skills that isn’t really cultivated. I know schools try to teach communication and they even have classes for it. But I don’t think people really grab what makes communication work. And it’s a constant battle. There are days when things click and it’s great. And there are days when the communication is not there and it’s frustrating.

Technology has helped in that regard — FaceTime, Zoom video conferencing, email, all that stuff. Email is great, but video conferencing is a game-changer. It is so much better because facial expressions are always missing in emails. You can put a smiley face or an exclamation point, but if you don’t see the person’s face when they’re telling you what they’re saying, you don’t know if they’re joking with you, if they’re serious, if they’re irritated. Video now allows people to have that meeting.

As far as tools go, we’re huge Instant Messengers. It’s like a tornado here in our office; a verbal tornado, but it’s all done electronically. And it’s great because I’m not having to walk down the hall, and say, “Hey, can you come into my office?”

Of course, verbal communication is still essential. But it all goes together. When you’re able to use all these different tools, it can really help out, especially when we’re busy. For instance, the minute and a half it takes for me to walk down to someone’s desk is time I could spend sending an email.

When you think about the future, what are your plans to advance innovation and productivity at Phoenix Civil Engineering?

We’re automating things. We’re five people and my vision is that our firm remains lean, mean, and nimble. We’re able to get in and get out. We’re efficient. And efficiency is what our strength is.

I admit that I was kind of resistant to technology at first, but once I saw the benefits, I never went back.

This is where construction technology likeAutodesk Build comes in. I admit that I was kind of resistant to technology at first, but once I saw the benefits, I never went back. At Phoenix Civil Engineering, we started with a program that allowed us to upload project specs and plans for use at the project site, as well as to generate reports. It was great because we did not have to haul around a bunch of paper. We then transitioned from that platform to PlanGrid.

When Autodesk absorbed PlanGrid, my wife Roz spent a lot of time with the Build team making suggestions and talking about how the platform can be improved. That was really beneficial because changes were made, and now we really like Autodesk Build.

In fact, I was just showing the rest of the team on the design side how to use it. I’m going to be teaching the contractor and his team on Monday how to use the Build program for submittals and things like that.

We also just bought 26 licenses for our project because we sold it to the client and we said, “This is what we use. This is what we like, and this is what works.” They wanted us to use a different program, but we decided against it. Why relearn another program when Autodesk Build already provides a solid solution?

What advice would you give to the next generation of men and women entering and preparing for the future of the industry?

I would say that they really need to understand what this industry offers and they need to go to a strong educational institution. It’s like buying a computer. You always want to stretch past what you can really afford. The same thing goes with education. You really want to push yourself to get the best thing in education you can.

I would also say that you need to go out there and — as scary as it seems — be an intern. You need to intern in this profession.

One thing that scares me is nobody wants their kid to be a foreman or foreperson or a superintendent. But we’re in trouble if we don’t get young people into the trades — i.e., the contractor, electrical, mechanical, all of that stuff.

I can sit at my desk and push out designs all day long, but if there’s no one to put it together, it’s a waste of the client’s money. This is where good quality construction professionals and engineers come in.

In order to be at the top of your game, you need to jump in there and learn from older people who can hand those experiences down because quite frankly, someday you’re going to be the old person. And if you never learned how to do things, you’re not going to have anything to offer.

Back in the late ’90s, early 2000s, the real estate market was through the roof. Everybody wanted to be real estate agents because they’re selling million dollar homes and getting these commissions. That’s all well and good, but what happens when people aren’t buying houses?

Civil engineering, on the other hand, is one of the oldest professions and it’s going to be around for the long run. You’re not going to get away from it. You’re always going to need water. You’re always going to want to go somewhere and live somewhere. All of that is civil engineering. I’m being very broad brush about it, but I think it’s important for people to recognize this.

Also, an engineer doesn’t have to be a stuffy person with a pocket protector. You can be a cool engineer or contractor if you choose to be one.

The post Behind the Build: Interview with Jon Turner, President/Principal Engineer, Phoenix Civil Engineering appeared first on Digital Builder.

Construction is a relationship-based business.

It takes solid connections and networks to move the construction industry forward and generate success in times of great change. No one knows this better than Troy Mayner, Vice President of Scott-Long Construction. We recently spoke with Troy about the relationships he’s built through his career in construction and how they’ve helped him drive progress. 

Tell us a little bit about Scott-Long Construction and what you specialize in.

Scott-Long Construction is located in Chantilly, Virginia. We provide general contracting services in, roughly, a 90-mile radius of the Chantilly area. We like to say we are a relationship company, meaning the majority of the work we want to do is with companies we have relationships with. That may be with an owner, a design team, subcontractors, etc. Whoever it is, we pride ourselves on having good relationships. We do a lot of hospital and church work, but really our driver is that we want to work with people that want to work with us.

Walk us through your career and what led you to becoming Vice President?

I graduated from Virginia Tech as a mechanical engineer. When I graduated, I started working for a small general contractor. It was essentially two other guys and me who did just about everything. Later, I moved to Whiting-Turner for about two years. Then I got a call from John Scott and interviewed with him. I’ve been at Scott-Long for a little over 15 years. I started as a project engineer and moved up to Project Manager, then Senior Project Manager, later the Director of Operations, and now the Vice President.

s construction evolves, how do you see your role changing?

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven a lot of progress, especially from the standard of communication. The way we communicate information amongst our team and the subcontractors and the owners has evolved. 

That’s one of the reasons we wanted to get into using a platform that we’re able to communicate across all parties with. It’s what really drew me and Scott-Long to the Autodesk Build platform

What project are you most proud of working on in your career?

The biggest and first major project I had with Scott-Long was Patrick Henry College. We did a student life center for them in 2008 and 2009, and I was the Project Engineer on that project. I had a great team and owner and an excellent superintendent to work with. It was a long, difficult project, but it was one that I’ll always remember. I probably gained the most construction knowledge over a short period of time by working on it. And by the end of the project, I moved up from Project Engineer to Project Manager. 

We also do a lot of work with Valley Health in Winchester, Virginia. They have facilities all over Virginia and West Virginia. One of our early projects with them was the South Tower renovation which included a renovation over the top and adjacent to occupied spaces. This project required a lot of coordination between the subcontractors and the owners, shutdowns, and relocation of patients. 

That was one of the main projects that we did with Valley Health that set us apart from other contractors. We’ve been out at Valley Health for the past 15+ years now.

What are the biggest challenges you face in your role?

Communication is the biggest challenge. We’re in the infancy of using the Build product. We really know the PlanGrid product, but we are at the beginning stages of using it. I would say that with the challenges with communication, there is an opportunity for us to clearly communicate and share documents amongst subcontractors or owners. That way everything is transparent across the entire team and there are no surprises for anybody. 

If all that information is there, you don’t get the call from the sub saying, “Hey, I don’t have this document.” They can go on and grab it. The owner says, “Where’s this?” and they can go on and get it. It really saves you a lot of time because all the information is housed in a central location, and you don’t have to have a person there to redistribute the information that already exists.

When you think about the future, what are your plans to advance innovation and productivity at Scott-Long Construction? 

It’s morphing the roles of the employees and how they operate. We’ve been discussing the right way to structure any given team internally. It really depends on the project and a lot of different things. 

But with the capabilities of the platform, the automated component has already happened, removing all those task-oriented things that people do. Now your employees can focus on figuring out the construction piece of it versus spending time on the paperwork.

What advice would you give to the next generation of men and women entering and preparing for the future of the industry?

Construction has been slow to evolve. When I look at all the technology companies and what they’re doing around us, my takeaway is: don’t always go with the status quo. There’s always a better way to do things. Don’t just let someone shove the idea of “This is the way it’s always been done. This is the way you need to do it.”  Don’t let that happen.

Take your freshness and look at everything with a different set of eyes. Speak up and say, “Hey, this is a better way to do it. I don’t know exactly how we get there, but this is a better way. How do we make that happen?”

Want more stories like this?

I regularly interview construction leaders to promote knowledge sharing. We cover what works, what doesn’t, and what the future holds. Check out our entire series of Behind the Build interviews, featuring some of the best in construction.

The post Behind the Build: Interview with Troy Mayner, Vice President, Scott-Long Construction appeared first on Digital Builder.

As the speed of decision-making in our industry continues to increase, data can help us not only make faster decisions, but better decisions too. Research shows that incredible opportunities exist for those who build a strong strategy for managing their data. Plus, with a well-designed data strategy, you’ll be setting yourself up to leverage more advanced technologies further down the line.

 

Listen to the episode now

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You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, SpotifyStitcher, Google Podcasts, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

 

On this podcast episode

Jay Bowman, Managing Director of Research & Analytics at FMI, and Andy Leek, Vice President – Technology & Innovation at PARIC Corporation, join the show to discuss the many benefits of having a strong data strategy in construction.

What we discuss:

The state of construction data today How to make sure you’re capturing useful dataHow a baseline of data strategy leads to more advanced technologiesImproving data literacy in constructionThe future of data in construction

Data strategy may seem optional today, but it’s really going to be a requirement tomorrow.” — Jay Bowman, Managing Director of Research & Analytics, FMI

 

Podcast highlights from Episode 21

Note: See “Four steps to building a data strategy” below.

In recent years, many perceived the construction industry as being behind the curve with technology adoption. And while there once was some truth to that, it’s clear that builders are now embracing technology at an incredible pace. 

In fact, the AEC industry has done a tremendous job in closing the technology gap. JLL’s State of Construction Tech 2020 report found that in the past year, the construction industry compressed three years of technology adoption and growth into just nine months. And as Jay points out, venture capital investment “has grown ten-fold in the construction industry over the last decade.” 

“I don’t know if there’s another industry where there’s really that much innovation going on. It’s actually a pretty exciting time for us,” he remarks. 

In line with all this progress is a rise in the amount of data that we capture. Our research with FMIrevealed that construction data has actually doubled in the last three years. So it’s not that we don’t have data—we do. We just need to make sure that we can trust the data and we’re able to put it to good use. 

“What it’s coming down to now is the fact that we already have the technology,” says Andy. 

“We are developing the data, and now it’s coming to a point where people need to know whether or not they can trust it. Is the cadence high enough that they can get information in a reasonable amount of time?”

This is where having a data strategy comes in. 

A good data strategy enables teams to access reliable and trustworthy data so they’re empowered to work more productively, make smarter project decisions, and improve profitability. Having a data strategy in place also puts more time back into people’s lives, so they can focus on things that matter outside their primary responsibilities—both professionally and personally.

“I would like to think we get to a point where we are focused on the human side of things, in terms of helping people do a better job, to rest easier, and make sure they can go home on time and watch their kids play baseball,” remarks Andy. 

“That way, they can truly have a life. People work to live, they don’t live to work.”

 

Four steps to building a construction data strategy

The conversation we had with Jay and Andy amplifies the most important takeaways from the data report we recently published, with FMI as our partner. This resource shares the findings we discovered from surveying nearly 4,000 AEC professionals on their data practices. 

The report also sheds light on the actionable steps that construction firms are strongly encouraged to take when building their own data strategy. 

Below is a quick summary of those steps, along with insights from Andy and Jay. 

Step 1: Select a single point of focus

Companies with good data strategies have one thing in common: they all began by selecting just one area to focus on. 

“In the case studies that we did, this was the common thread through everybody,” explains Jay. “No one tried to solve everything at one time, they chose one area of the organization where they could apply a solution.”

There are different ways to figure out the best point of focus. Andy recommends concentrating on places within the business where you already have measurable data.

“For us, we started in two basic areas—one was financial and the other was safety. And those were the two simplest places in our situation. We just decided to zero in on those particular areas and grow from there.”

You could also identify areas that would benefit most from data. Ask yourself, which component or department of the business would generate the most value if it had a data strategy in place?

Taking these steps narrows down the focus of your data strategy, so you can prevent being overwhelmed and get started quickly. 

Step 2: Get employee buy-in to reduce hesitancy

You can’t have a data strategy without the support and commitment of other stakeholders. That’s why before rolling out your plans, ensure that you have buy-in from the right people. 

According to Andy, the best way to do this is to “meet people where they’re at.” 

“You’ve got to get them comfortable with the terminology. When you start throwing acronyms at people, they turn off immediately,” he adds.

When educating teams about data, make sure you’re doing it in a way that they can understand. You can do this by starting with the basics to create a foundational education. 

Jay likens it to teaching someone how to drive.

“If I’m trying to teach someone to drive a car, I’m not going to tell them how an internal combustion engine works and how the metal comes together. I’m going to explain to them the gas pedal and the steering. I’m going to teach them how to use the brake.”

The same thing applies to your data strategy, he says. “We have to start at that ground level.”

You can also improve data literacy by making it easy and intuitive for teams to view and interpret data. 

Over at PARIC, Andy says they did this by creating curated dashboards for their teams. 

“We curated them based on their role or their phase in the project. That way, there are no endless bar graphs and pie graphs for them to try and noodle all the way through. They can easily see key insights relevant to them.”

Step 3: Standardize your data capture across all projects

The outputs or results of your data strategy will only be as good as the inputs entered into the system. 

According to Jay, one of the killers of data integrity is having “multiple project inputs.”

“You would not realize that there are 30 different ways to spell the name of one supplier. Sometimes you can use all capital letters and sometimes you use just the regular capital at the beginning of the sentence… Those things, although they seem minor, actually add up and can complicate your project inputs.”

Having multiple processes is another problem, says Jay. When your data capture and QA processes aren’t uniform, you are hindering your ability to collect high-quality data and prevent your teams from gaining useful insights. 

This is why standardization is so important. Before capturing and analyzing information, everyone in the organization must first agree on the formats, systems, and processes to use. 

Step 4: Keep project data in a common environment

Using disconnected software and hardware isone of the top reasons for having bad data, says Jay.

In order for your strategy to be successful, you must ensure that all your data lives in one, centralized location that can be accessed by the right people. In other words, you need a common data environment (CDE).

As Jay puts it, “Standardization and creating a common data environment stood out more than anything in terms of what firms could do to address data integrity issues and limit the amount of bad data.”

If you haven’t already, decide on a single platform on which to host and analyze your data. Adopting a CDE not only ensures that teams have access to the right information, it also guarantees that they’re all working from the same data. With a CDE, project stakeholders can remain well-informed and they have the ability to collaborate more effectively.

 

The bottom line with data strategy

A formal data strategy gives companies a competitive advantage in today’s AEC landscape. 

So, don’t wait too long to roll out a strategy in your firm. Bets are your competitors are already making progress. Start by identifying a specific area to focus on and getting buy-in from your team. From there, make sure you establish standardized data processes and adopt a CDE to keep everyone on the same page. 

 

New podcast episode every two weeks 

Digital Builder is hosted by me, Eric Thomas. New episodes of the Digital Builder podcast go live every two weeks. 

If you can’t get enough of construction tech and data strategies, catch the full podcast episode of Digital Builder to hear more from Andy and Jay.

Listen to the Digital Builder Podcast on: 

Apple Podcasts SpotifyStitcherGoogle Podcastsor wherever you listen to podcasts

The post Digital Builder Ep 21: Bringing a Construction Data Strategy to Life appeared first on Digital Builder.