Granger Construction – RIB CostX Software in Action

Granger Construction is a Michigan construction company with offices based in Lansing, Grand Rapids and Novi. They have a strong culture based on innovation, teamwork, integrity, inspiration and diligence. Granger has a focus on key relationships with architects, subcontractors, government agencies and of course, customers. They put an emphasis on being collaborative and building long-term relationships while working towards a common goal. They prioritise ensuring that their customers have a positive experience with them while they deliver the highest quality project. 

Athletics South Competition & Performance project 

Client: The University of Michigan 
Product used: CostX 
Project: Athletics South Competition & Performance project 
Value: US$100 M 
Timeframe: Preconstruction Activities started in December 2014 and were substantially completed April 2016 

Client’s Requirements 

The University of Michigan’s Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) group required Granger to provide two milestone estimates – one at the Design Development (50% complete DD’s) stage and one at the 95% Construction Document (95% CD’s) stage for each of five (5) separate buildings as well as the campus sitework component for the multi-building project area. 

The estimate needed to be delivered in The UofM’s 3-level estimate template that is based on the CSI 2012 format. It was also a requirement to reconcile both the DD and CD estimates with an independent national estimating consultant that had already delivered a Schematic Design (SD) estimate for the project and would now also be providing their own DD and CD estimates.

Granger Construction Contributions 

Granger made extensive use of the CostX system on this project and created a custom estimate template to meet The UofM’s estimate format requirements. Information from multiple Revit models was leveraged as the primary source of quantity take-off information for the estimates and was supplemented with 2D take-offs from CAD and PDF documents as well. The CostX environment was the primary resource used to communicate the estimate to the rest of the project team during the estimate reconciliation meetings. At the DD estimate reconciliation Granger’s take-offs proved to be highly accurate with net estimate adjustments amounting to less than 0.1%. When it was discovered that the project was approximately 15% over budget at the DD estimate, an exhaustive value engineering effort was launched and over 500 value engineering items were estimated, evaluated, and considered for incorporation into the design to bring the project back within budget. 

Rather than waiting until the next milestone estimate at 95% CD’s to be reassured that the adopted value engineering items had indeed successfully brought the project back with the budget guidelines, The UofM’s AEC group was so impressed with the CostX estimating system that they engaged Granger Construction to complete another DD-level estimate utilizing CostX. Once the accepted value engineering items had been incorporated into the preliminary design Granger confirmed that the project was back on budget both with this additional DD-level estimate and again with the CD-level estimate. Bid-day result ultimately proved to be very favourable with the project procurement being delivered at approximately 4.0% under the project budget. 

Making the Difference 

RIB CostX proved to be an invaluable communication tool during the development of the design. It was very successful in effectively conveying the quantitative estimate information within the 3D environment in a very clear and concise way to the rest of the project team which allowed for a very timely and efficient estimate reconciliation process. When an additional DD estimate was requested by the Owner the live links established within CostX allowed for the updates to be made very efficiently so that the Estimating team was able to focus more on higher level tasks at hand as opposed to revising quantity take-offs.