January 18, 2021
Tender calls are becoming more receptive to value engineered alternatives
VALUE ENGINEERING CASE STUDY
The Township of Dawson in Northwestern Ontario had originally specified a precast concrete box culvert for this replacement project. Their tender did not include a value engineering (VE) policy or option, but we called them and asked if they would be open to looking at a value engineered alternative in steel. Although their official answer was “no changes would be considered prior to tendering,” we felt the conversation had left the door open to pursue a VE option with them.
Value engineering saves almost 25% on overall project
We quickly came back to them with a value engineered proposal on how our Bolt-A-Plate Horizontal Ellipse solution could save them about $150,000 on the $650,000 they had budgeted for the concrete box solution — even with the optional Best-Kote Polymer Coating.
The Township chose our value engineered proposal
About $75,000-$100,000 of the savings came from not needing a crane on-site. There was about $35,000 savings on the structure cost itself, and the rest of the savings came from a slightly smaller excavation zone and the actual labour/installation time needed.
We were very pleased to be able to give the owner an infrastructure project that came in on time, and well under their original budget.
About value engineering
Value engineering is a systematic method of improving the value of products and services by examining the ratio of function to cost. In short, less expensive materials and services or better functions are utilized in projects without sacrificing safety or performance.
