Why preconstruction is suddenly so important
General contractors such as Mortenson, Messer and PCL say project collaboration is happening much earlier and with greater transparency than before the pandemic.
Editor’s note: This is the first of three articles about the increasing importance of preconstruction since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lump sum. Bid and buy. Read and rip. These were the terms that dominated preconstruction before the pandemic.
“Our industry historically has been driven by the traditional construction manager at risk model, where the owner will start with the architect and begin design before bringing the GC onboard,” said Nathan Lingard, director of design phase at Minneapolis-based Mortenson Construction. “This planning and design phase of the project is a period of time where there is high uncertainty.”
Informed largely by siloed partners and a disjointed handoff, that approach to preconstruction — measured roughly as the period from a project’s initial concept to its groundbreaking — was always fraught with discord and miscommunication between project stakeholders.
But industry watchers say that all changed when COVID-19 hit.
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