Construction and Steel Structure

Biography

Biography: Ted Garrison

Abstract

The structural steel industry and its contractors should not only embrace integrated project delivery, but actively pursue and encourage its adoption. The reason is simple. At the project\'s inception is when the steel contractor can provide its greatest value to the project and has its greatest opportunity to influence the design. The steel contractor can use its knowledge and expertise to provide the guidance necessary to ensure the structure delivers the highest value for the owner’s investment. For example, if no steel contractor participates in the early structural design, ill-advised decisions might lead to the elimination of structural steel as an option. Potentially, a bigger problem for steel contractors is by not participating in the early structural steel design, people less knowledgeable and experienced about structural steel may make decisions that negatively impact the steel contractor and the project. Unfortunately, far too often when the steel contractor is finally asked for its opinions, it’s too late to implement their recommendations. Therefore, it’s in the steel contractor’s best interest to participate in the early structural design issues where its knowledge and experience can be used to its greatest advantage. In other words, when the steel contractor participates from inception, it can provide true value engineering on the structural steel designs. In other words, by participating from project inception, the steel contractor and steel industry can create a win-win environment by providing great project value and increasing the contractor\'s profitability.