One of the aspects of the type of engineering services that Ifland Engineers, Inc. strives to include in every project is that of “value engineering”. This means to design the project to meet the code requirements with practical application but not to “over engineer” that drives up the construction costs.
As an example, a major national home builder engaged an engineering firm to prepare a tentative map and preliminary improvement plans for a 128 lot subdivision. The City approved the tentative map at which time the builder came to us and hired us to complete the final design for construction.
As we studied the preliminary drawings, we noticed that there was a significant volume of soil to be hauled off-site, oversized pipelines for sanitary sewers and storm drains, and many more manholes and catch-basins than were needed. When we completed our re-design of these items, we compared the construction quantities and showed our client the cost savings of applying “value engineering”.
The cost savings were as follows:
|
|
Preliminary Plans |
Final Plans |
Difference |
Unit Cost |
Totals |
Grading |
43,000 C.Y. Export |
0 Export |
-43,000 C.Y. |
$8.00 |
-$344,000 |
Water Main |
|
|
|
|
|
|
8” |
4700 L.F. |
3600 L.F. |
- 1100 L.F. |
$40.00 |
-$44,000 |
|
4” |
0 |
1100L.F. |
+ 1100 L.F. |
$30.00 |
+$33,000 |
Sewer Main |
|
|
|
|
|
|
8” |
4728 L.F. |
3698 L.F. |
-1030 L.F. |
$38.00 |
-$39,140 |
|
6” |
0 |
1030 L.F. |
+1030 L.F. |
$32.00 |
+$32,960 |
|
Sanitary Sewer Manhole |
27 |
22 |
-5 |
$2,800 |
-$14,000 |
Storm DrainManhole |
26 |
13 |
-13 |
$3,000 |
-$39,000 |
Catch Basins |
36 |
28 |
-8 |
$2,000 |
-$16,000 |
Storm Drains |
|
|
|
|
|
|
12” |
0 |
960 L.F. |
+960 |
$40.00 |
+$38,400 |
|
15” |
1860 L.F. |
500 L.F. |
-1360 L.F. |
$43.00 |
-$58,480 |
|
18” |
3220 L.F. |
1775 L.F.. |
-1445 L.F |
$50.00 |
-$72,250 |
|
24” |
150 L.F. |
0 L.F. |
-150 L.F. |
$55.00 |
-$8,750 |
|
30” |
0 |
75 L.F. |
+75 L.F. |
$60.00 |
+$4,500 |
|
|
|
|
TOTAL SAVINGS: |
|
-$526,760 |
Had our client constructed the project as the first engineering firm had designed, the cost would have been over $500,000 more for the 128 lots, or $3,900 per lot.
VALUE ENGINEERING PAYS
