Category: Past Meetings

Use of BIM to Facilitate Cost Estimating on BART to Silicon Valley Extension

SPEAKER:

Peter Starnes – BIM Manager

Mott MacDonald

Mr. Starnes has more than 25 years of experience in maritime civil engineering for infrastructure and transportation projects. He champions the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) processes and provides leadership and guidance for collaborative working. He acts as information manager on BIM projects to ISO:19650, and devises and monitors suitable workflows for BIM processes, tailored to the needs of the project. Mr. Starnes manages a team of BIM coordinators and is responsible for ensuring consistent quality and on-time delivery of technical models.  Mr. Starnes is currently the BIM Manager responsible for overall BIM management for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Silicon Valley Extension Phase II (BSVII) in San José, CA.

LOCATION: (Virtual via Go To Meeting)

PROGRAM TIME:

Jun 24th, 2021 @ 7:00 PM (PST)

 AACE Section Joint Technical Session: Decision & Risk Management 101 & a preview of the upcoming AACE International Project Risk Management Professional (PRMP) certification

SYNOPSIS: 

The word “risk” means different things to different people. There is risk according to insurance industry underwriting; there is an entirely different meaning among the financial and investment community. There are also safety, threat, and vulnerability risks, in addition to enterprise risks, just to mention a few. Within AACE we have narrowed our focus to cover two primary categories of risk: the risks associated with business decisions when committing capital resources for asset investments, and the risks associated with the planning, design, construction, operations, and maintenance of specific projects. The focus of this presentation will be on the latter, which in the broader sense is referred to as project risk management.

Within the field of project risk management, it is important to understand that there are necessary distinctions among the responses of various project personnel to the risk management process. The roles and responsibilities, as well as the level of expertise, are different for project managers, project control personnel such as estimators and schedulers, and the risk manager. These individuals should understand what they need to know regarding their individual roles in a comprehensive risk management program

This presentation will introduce the primary tenets of risk management and discuss how the varying roles of project personnel work together to complement each other within the overall risk management process. It will take a look at the new AACE certification requirements for a

Project Risk Management Professional (PRMP), scheduled for introduction at the June 2021 AACE International Conference & Expo.

GUEST SPEAKER:

David Norfleet

Deputy Project Manager, Risk and Contracts Management

 

LOCATION: (Virtual)

WEBINAR TIME:

April 08th, 2021 @ 3:30pm to 5:00 pm. PDT

 

TITLE: Work Condition during Pandemic (Mental Health/Productivity/etc.)

To All Members and Colleagues,

We are proud to add another panelist, Chris Mack – Manager, Construction Management Unit, Wastewater Treatment Division, King County Dept. of Natural Resources and Parks

SYNOPSIS:
Construction projects faced challenges and experienced periods of interruptions as result of Covid-19 pandemic. Health concerns (both mental and physical), new safety measures such as social distancing, wearing masks, and sanitization requirements impacted productivity and added potential cost and/or time. However, the extent of these impacts and contract implications have been different among projects.  On this Webinar, AACE Seattle Section invited panelists to discuss their views, risks and responses to executing projects during the pandemic.

PANELISTS:
Janice Zahn
Assistant Director Engineering, Port of Seattle
Matthew Preedy
Director of Construction Management, Sound Transit
Chris Mack
Manager, Construction Management Unit, Wastewater Treatment Division, King County Dept. of Natural Resources and Parks, WSDOT
Mark Sliger
CM Manager of Capital Projects, Seattle Dept of Transportation

LOCATION: (Virtual via Go To Meeting)

PROGRAM TIME:
Jan. 14th, 2021 @ 11:45am PST
11:45am –Log-in to Webinar
12:00pm – Webinar Starts
12:45pm – Q&A
1:00pm – Webinar Ends

TITLE: Supporting Diverse Businesses at the Port of Seattle

SYNOPSIS:
What does it entails to have a company or agency be Diverse in doing Business?  Like Port of Seattle, the agency is admired on how they give importance on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
There are a lot of ways to support the goal of an agency to be diversified, it may include project contracting, hiring employees, giving services and selling goods. We at AACE Seattle have invited a great
person who has an important role in developing and managing diversity on projects.  Him being a catalyst who creates a diverse environment is out most important for a company to become successful.

PRESENTER:
Lawrence Coleman
Woman/Minority Business Ent Mgr.,
Diversity in Contracting

LOCATION: Go To Meeting

PROGRAM TIME:
Dec. 17th, 2020 @ 11:45pm PST
11:45pm –Log-in to Webinar
12:00pm – Webinar Starts
12:45pm – Q&A
1:00pm – Webinar Ends

TITLE: Would you like to save 3% of your project value? Artificial Intelligence may hold the key

SYNOPSIS: 

Learning from past mistakes on construction projects is hard – 98% of mega projects incur cost and time overruns according to McKinsey. The challenges are wide-reaching, from collating historical data, to interpreting results, and comparing results across your entire portfolio history.

Thankfully, new tools are being developed, using Artificial Intelligence techniques, to tackle these challenges and unlock massive savings opportunities for contractors, owners, and the community.

Join Toby Buchanan from nPlan to learn how major project teams are using these tools today on projects around the world.

PRESENTER:

Toby Buchanan

General Manager, nPlan

 

LOCATION: Go To Meeting

PROGRAM TIME:

Nov. 12th, 2020 @ 11:45am PST

65-year-old Fairview Ave N wooden bridge replacement

SYNOPSIS: In Seattle, thousands of people travel on Fairview Ave N between South Lake Union and Eastlake every day without even realizing that they’re passing over Seattle’s last remaining major road on a wooden bridge. This bridge is held up by wooden posts built over 65 years ago; which are decaying and the concrete girders which stabilize the street on the eastern half of the bridge are cracked.

Rebuilding the Fairview Ave bridge is essential for public safety and will accommodate all people. In 2015, Seattle voters approved a levy to provide a $27 million investment in the Fairview Bridge replacement project. To replace the bridge, a section of Fairview Ave N is closed for 18 months. This project will construct sidewalks on both sides as well as a protected 12-foot, 2-way bike lane on the west side of the bridge. Just like today, there will be three lanes for cars and buses. Along with seismic improvements, we’re building 3 new lookout points along the west side of the bridge to provide viewing platforms looking out to Lake Union.

Join us as we share lessons learned, project risks and construction methods for the wooden bridge replacement.

PRESENTER:

Marilyn Yim, PE

Project Manager, Seattle Dept of Transportation

Is it Important to Scientifically Derive Project Contingency?

SYNOPSIS: Capital projects often than not experience significant cost over-runs and schedule delays, eroding project’ commercial values or profitability. One of the many researched reasons why major projects have such bad reputation is lacking robust and diligent project risk management practice, not only qualifying risks but to quantify the aggregated impacts of such foreseeable risks to the project.

Contingency is an essential element of project budget that is deemed to be spent by project team. In addition risk reserve funds are supplementary to cover the extraordinary and rare-event driven risks during project execution. How to derive the contingency and risk reserve funds in a scientific way is not a well-known to many project controls personnel. This presentation illustrates how a Monte Carlo simulation technique is used to simulate appropriate contingency at a given confidence level, and fits into cost estimate classification.

PRESENTER:

John G. Zhao

Principal Consultant at Riskcore Ltd.

International Arrival Facility – Pedestrian Walkway

SYNOPSIS: The Port of Seattle is building a new, expanded International Arrivals Facility (IAF) at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to significantly enhance the international passenger experience, advance the Puget Sound region as a leading tourism and business gateway, and serve the traveling public well into the future. The IAF, the most complex capital development program in the history of the 70-year-old airport, will significantly improve the arrival process for international passengers without adding new gates. The existing 1970s-era facilities cannot accommodate Seattle’s growing demand for international travel

The IAF was designed to increase capacity and will provide the following benefits:

  • Nearly double international-capable gates (from 12 to 20)
  • Increase passenger capacity by more than double to 2,600 passengers per hour
  • Incorporate enhanced technologies for faster passport check clearance
  • Increase size and number of bag claim carousels from four to seven
  • Reduce the minimum passenger connection time from 90 to 75 minutes

PRESENTER:

Stephen St. Louis

Project Manager, Port of Seattle

AACE Seattle Section July 16, 2020 Webinar: The Digital Frontier of AECO Industry – Digital Building Lifecycle

SYNOPSIS: Digital building lifecycle re-engineers processes and innovates the applicable technology tools for delivering data in smart environments.

It bridges the traditional stakeholder siloes, opens gates for fluent data flow and accumulates information from crate to beyond grave in smart environments.

PRESENTER:
Salla Eckhardt
Director of Transformation Services
Global Real Estate and Security | Center of Innovation
Microsoft

AACE Seattle Section June 11th, 2020 Webinar: Completing the Bellevue Downtown Tunnel On Time and Under Budget, Challenges and Success Stories!

SYNOPSIS: The Downtown Bellevue Tunnel (DBT) is part of Sound Transit’s $3.7 billion East Link Extension Program, a 14-mile extension of the Sound Transit (ST) light rail transit system from downtown Seattle, across a floating bridge over Lake Washington, to the cities of Mercer Island, Bellevue, and Redmond. The DBT project consists of a 250-foot-long cut-and-cover portal structure at the southern end, a 1,983-foot-long Soft Ground Sequential Excavation Method (SEM) tunnel, and a mid-tunnel access shaft with a short adit connecting it to the tunnel.

This presentation will provide an overview of the SEM tunnel and the steps how the project team, lead by McMillen Jacobs Associates was able to complete this high profile project on time and under budget.

PRESENTER: Mun Wei Leong

Construction Manager-McMillen Jacobs Associates
East Link Bellevue Downtown Tunnel