Roundtable: Building, Construction & Design.

• Author: Malan, Mekenna

This month, Utah Business partnered with Dentons Durham Jones Pinegar to host a roundtable event featuring Utah's building, construction and design leaders. Moderated by Bruce Bingham, partner at Hamilton Partners, the group discussed supply chain problems, labor shortages and the need for more CTE education in Utah. Here are a few highlights from the event.

How are supply chain problems affecting you?

Brian Tolley I Director, Private Contracts I Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction

You have to manage expectations with the owner. You have to have contingency planning. The key that we've really tried to focus on is communication and the follow-up. Don't just rely on what you hear today--maintain that follow-up with your suppliers throughout the process. It has to be ongoing and regular.

Aaron Metcalfe I VP, Marketing & Business Development | Hogan & Associates Construction

I think it's imperative that owners engage the contractors early. What I see is a lot of owners are going back to lowbid, which creates even more problems. Construction management provides so many ways to combat this.

Brian Hall I CFO I Kilgore Companies

Concrete has some major headwinds. As the fly ash supply continues to shrink in the US, that is only making the concrete issue worse. We're putting more concrete powder in mixes that we used to supplement with fly ash. There are fewer imports into the United States now than there were two years ago. Imports are harder to find and source than they have been in the past.

Celestia Carson | Principal I VCBO Architecture

It hasn't necessarily been steel and concrete that's impacted decisions in design as much as things like switchgear and long-lead items that we know will turn our schedules upside down. What it's done has pushed more for bid packages and earlier bid packages so we could begin to order gear and equipment much earlier in the process than we would do normally.

Larry Curtis I Principal | FFKR Architects

When wood construction started to skyrocket, what that did was force our owners to start looking at going taller and increased density, so we got steel and concrete more involved. With the concrete shortages, it's forced our hand over to steel. So yes, [the supply chain] has changed how we look at things. A lot of our projects switched from wood to concrete and now from concrete to steel.

Mark Harris I Senior Principal | Reaveley Engineers

Even within the steel group, [the supply chain has] forced selection of products. Open web joist is a prime example over the last two years. Typical industry standard is that we can get those things onsite in maybe six months. All of a sudden, you're hearing suppliers saying 20-24 months. Construction schedules just can't tolerate those [lead times]. In a lot of our projects, when open web joist became the controlling factor, we switched from all open web to wide flange sections. And while it's got a tonnage increase, it's time versus money. Multiple projects went through redesign to say, okay, eliminate what is traditionally a more economical product and put something in its place that we can get in a more timely manner.

John Evans | Project Executive I Okland Construction

In our pre-construction cycle, long lead procurement purchasing is a big thing that we're focusing...