The Construction Management Heavy/Civil Team placed THIRD in the NATION at the annual Associated Schools of Construction and Associated General Contractors student competition. The team, coached by Michael Tramel, consisted of Waylon Corley, Angel Corley, Lisa Bishop, Jeremy Land, Miyoshi Stringer, and Kevin Young. Over 242 universities across the country competed in seven regional competitions with only the first place teams advancing to the Nationals held in San Antonio, TX. The Heavy/Civil Division consisted of teams from Auburn University, Brigham Young University, Oregon State University, Penn College, University of Cincinnati, University of Nebraska, and University of Arkansas Little Rock.
Granite Construction Company, based in California, sponsored the National Competition and was responsible for compiling and judging the construction problem. Granite selected the $14,680,328.00 Whitewater River Bridge Project as the competition problem. This project consisted of elevating an 1100-foot section of roadway over the Whitewater River Channel. The existing dip crossing was to be replaced with an all-weather crossing to alleviate issues with channel flow conditions and flash flooding. The project also contained of a 437-foot pre-cast concrete girder bridge, extensive channel excavation/modifications, landscaped roadway side slopes, curb inlets, storm drain outlets, and an electrical structure. The major challenge was removing and replacing the bridge along its original centerline while still providing an open 28-foot minimum roadway width. There was also extensive channel work to be performed and construction had to be scheduled around rainy season and year round flash flooding.
The team was confined to a hotel room without Internet access or cell phones for 16 hours, starting at 6:00 am in the morning and ending at 10:00 pm at night. Each team was given the project problem binder, one set of plans, and one set of specifications. The teams were required to do twelve extensive unit price estimates for the following contract items: relocation of a water line, roadway excavation, channel siltation excavation, bridge structure excavation, and backfill, import borrow materials, roadway embankment, crushed aggregate base, asphalt concrete, ARHM surfacing/overlay, structural concrete for the bridge footing, and the erection of the pre-cast concrete bridge. Then the team was required to prepare a detailed Critical Path Method schedule, evaluate supplier/subcontractor price quotes, answer 20 contract document questions, and prepare/submit the bid proposal in accordance with the specification requirements.
The problem required each team member to demonstrate skills in quantity take-off, unit cost estimating, scheduling, subcontract analysis, equipment production, crew productivity, traffic control, and contract document interpretations. The team was also required to attend a mock bid letting where they had to submit a written cost proposal along with the answers to 20 contract document questions. The next day the team was required to do a 20-minute oral presentation with the judges asking questions for an additional 20 minutes.
Granite Construction commented at the awards dinner that this was UALR’s first time at the Nationals and how impressed they were that we took third place. UALR can truly be proud of the hard work and dedication of the Heavy/Civil Competition Team.