To Help Save Time, Structural Engineer Wears Harder Hat
Washingtons Tacoma Public School District has become a reluctant pioneer in the slow-but-steady paradigm shift toward computer-aided design and construction, thanks to a convincing argument from the design team to help meet an aggressive construction schedule for a 279,000-sq-ft high school. By allowing the structural engineer to preorder and detail Mt. Tahoma High Schools 1,900 tons of primary steel, taking on risk typically the contractors, TPSD set in motion a chain of events that has sliced at least three months off construction.
The strategy has paid off. The $77.7-million school is on course and budget for substantial completion June 11. "Its working out just as well as we hoped," says Peter J. Wall, TPSDs director of planning and construction.