V.E. study

McCool and Associates, P.C.
A R C H I T E C T U R E A N D P L A N N I N G , A P R O F E S S I O N A L C O R P O R A T I O N

Value Engineering Study - New East Side Fire Station
Tulsa Fire Department - Three Station Building Program

"I particularly want to commend you for the way your Value Engineering team was able to fit in with the design team. Because of the very nature of a VE study, there is a good chance that an adversarial relationship will develop between the VE team and the Design Team. You were able to avoid that pitfall and come across in a positive way. This positive relationship had a major impact on how much of the proposed costs reductions were adopted."

J. D. Turner, P.E.f Tulsa Public Works Department, Engineering Services

MAPC assembled a multi-disciplined team to conduct the Value Engineering Study of the 75 % construction documents for the new Eastside Fire Station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as requested by the City of Tulsa and the Tulsa Fire Department. It was the team’s objective to analyze the project, find high cost areas, and identify alternatives for reduced cost or improved functional use of the facility or functional improvements in the plan. The design architects estimated costs of the station was $2.2 million at the beginning of the study.

The study was a 2 ½ day workshop with a Certified Value Specialist, an architect, structural engineer, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer as team members. The recommendations prepared during the study were included in the final report.

The VE job plan included the following phases::

Informative Phase –review construction documents in terms of function and associated costs – breakdown construction costs into system groups for comparative analysis.

Speculative Phase – develop ideas and ways to provide necessary functions at a lower initial cost.

Analytical Phase – evaluation of ideas in terms of cost and probability of implementation, magnitude of possible savings, and state of the art technology.

Development Phase – selected ideas are expanded into workable solutions – develop description of advantages and disadvantages of recommended designs.

Presentation Phase – presentation of findings to client.

Report Phase – issue report for client’s use.

From a total of 71 ideas listed during the speculative phase of the VE job plan, the value engineering team developed fifty proposals for a substantial cost savings as illustrated below:

Discipline Recommendations Est. Cost Savings

(G) General 3 $ 227,757.00

(S) Structural 12 $ 129,905.00

(A) Architectural 15 $ 210,036.00

(M) Mechanical 4 $ 19,325.00

(P) Plumbing 5 $ 5,900.00

(E) Electrical 6 $ 19,431.00
$ 637,279.00

The estimated savings were generated from unit costs provided by the design architects, Fritz Baily, Inc.. The costs savings implemented on all three new stations totaled nearly 30 times the costs of the study and will be used as a benchmark for future station planning.