Pre-Construction
Rock City Mechanical has supported general contractors and owners over its history with accurate pre-construction budgets from schematic design through final construction documents. Rock City Mechanical draws on a base of historical cost data and intricate estimating assemblies generated from our vast construction experience to provide an accurate schematic budget from conceptual drawings. This budget is analyzed at each level of design submittal and reissue, noting any additions or deletions to the scope and any corresponding cost implication. During this process, we offer cost management and value engineering suggestions for consideration by the owner and design professionals that will help maintain the budget or enhance the constructability of the project. Through the combination of experience, historical data, and state-of-the-art software, RCM confidently commits to hard dollar, cost plus, guaranteed maximum price and integrated project delivery contracts based on incomplete design documents. RCM then works with the owner, architect, engineer and general contractor to maintain and/or reduce the original budget through the completion of the design phase of the project.
Engineering/Design/CAD
Rock City Mechanical is committed to the coordination and quality control processes as critical construction tools and as accurate records of our installations. Rock City Mechanical also understands and embraces the need and value of utilizing current technologies and software to aid in the overall team effort to building any project – particularly healthcare and correctional projects. To that end RCM has established an in-house CAD/BIM department to provide 3D modeling for all of our projects. We use the most current version of AutoCAD in unison with QuickPen Pipe Designer 3D and Duct Designer 3D to model all of our mechanical projects. Each CAD station also has a seat of REVIT to seamlessly interface with the overall BIM model and a seat of NavisWorks to aid in collision detection. RCM models all projects from the underground through the roof, providing detailing and dimensions to facilitate the coordination and installation of each project. We are able to export in solids and capable of meeting and operating within any BIM requirements. RCM has three CAD/BIM stations. We have chosen to staff the department with personnel who have extensive field experience. The department head is a former superintendent with experience in all aspects of mechanical contracting and construction in general who brings real-life practicality to our CAD/ BIM efforts. In addition to our 3D coordination and modeling of our projects, we have recently completed full BIM modeling on four projects – VA Audie Murphy Poly-trauma Unit, San Antonio, TX; El Paso Children’s Hospital, El Paso, TX; Motlow State Community College, Nashville, TN; and Cherokee Indian Hospital, Cherokee, NC.
Rock City Mechanical has in-house professional engineers, and can provide mechanical and plumbing design/build services on a wide range of projects from conceptual design through delivery of the completed project.
Integrated Project Lean Delivery
Rock City Mechanical has completed three Integrated Project Lean Delivery (IPLD) design/build healthcare projects and is entering the construction phase of a third IPLD design/build project with a fourth ILPLD design/build project in the design stage. All of these projects incorporated Lean principles during the preconstruction and design phase of the projects. Rock City Mechanical has embraced and experienced great success with this innovative, highly collaborative project delivery method. We have found that establishing Conditions of Satisfaction for the preconstruction effort are just as important as and complimentary to the overall project Conditions of Satisfaction. On these projects, we utilized “pull planning” and “last planner” techniques to establish preconstruction deliverables such as construction documents milestones, budget milestones, and ultimately submission of final construction documents for permitting. Establishing Lean processes for the preconstruction will eliminate waste and unnecessary effort and most importantly help establish the mindset for Lean principles during the construction phase, where the opportunity for paybacks are much greater.
Recent successful Integrated Project Lean Delivery projects include:
- UHS Lakeside Hospital – $1.5 million free standing behavioral health facility in Bartlett, TN
- UHS Rolling Hills Hospital – $1.5 million behavioral health facility addition in Franklin, TN
- Cherokee Indian Hospital – $7.5 million replacement community hospital in Cherokee, NC
- UHS Rolling Hills Hospital – $1.4 million behavioral health facility addition in Olive Branch, MS
- UHS Cumberland Hall Hospital – $2.5 million replacement behavioral health facility in Hopkinsville, KY