Fair Life Milk

Unique Features: Project Polk was started in the summer of 2014.  The original contract amount started at $6,000,000.  By the time it reached fall the contract had increased 50%, to $9,000,000. Work consisted of a new boiler plant, chiller plant, as well as utilities and process lines to equipment.  In addition to the increased work load, the owner inquired about the possibility of accelerating the schedule to complete the project six months earlier than expected. Allied Mechanical Services’ (AMS) answer was, “yes”.  In order to meet this aggressive deadline, AMS solution was two-fold, utilized two crew shifts as well as Building Information Modeling (BIM).

 Over the course of the project, AMS consistently had a daily total of 50-60 workers on the job site, totaling 80,000 man hours. That many workers in the same area at one time would be counter-productive, therefore, two shifts were created. This allowed the crew to remain at the productivity level required to meet the deadline while not overcrowding the job site and creating any unnecessary safety hazards.

Along with the two crew shifts, Allied Mechanical Services also utilized applied its BIM capabilities to the project. This was a change from the original plans when AMS was first awarded the job and it proved essential to the project’s success. A laser scanner was used to scan the existing building to produce the 3-D BIM model. BIM Technicians then took the information from the model and created the rest of the piping systems to be installed. Those images were given to welders at AMS’ Kalamazoo fabrication shop who were then able to fabricate remaining pipe and ship it out to the job site. This method of off-site fabrication proved to be more time efficient as well as safer than fabricating on-site. It also allowed for the remaining pipe to be fabricated simultaneously while the on-site workers were installing other sections of pipe. In all, more than 65,000 feet of utility and process piping was installed during the project thanks to a total team effort.