Top Highway Contractors Team Up for Top Projects

Tidewater Skanska and Flatiron Constructors bring people and resources together to tackle big jobs with panache.

By Debra Wood

National transportation contractors Tidewater Skanska and Flatiron Constructors, continuing a longstanding working relationship, have continued to beat the competition and win some of the highest-profile bridge and highway projects in the Southeast.

Tackling major road projects with innovation, the two heavy/highway contractors continue to work together as a joint venture, remaining open to new ideas and spurring creativity at all levels.

"We've had a good success-hit ratio relationship with them, and it comes down to corporate philosophies," said Robert French, president of Flatiron of Longmont, Colo. "We pick joint partners with our same appetite for risk."

Tidewater, of Virginia Beach, Va., and Flatiron began working together in 2000 on the $250 million, design-build Carolina Bays Parkway in Myrtle Beach for the South Carolina Department of Transportation. The project included construction of 20 mi. of a new six-lane limited-access highway and a 1.5-mi., four-lane connector with a major bridge structure over the Intracoastal Waterway.

The team used top-down construction techniques to protect environmentally sensitive coastal marshes.

In 2001, the firms teamed up again to design and build the $540 million, cable-stay Cooper River Bridge replacement project, again for the SCDOT. Two 573-ft.-tall towers and 128 cable stays support the precast concrete deck panels.

The team won the job with a proposal to build the structure in four years, instead of the five years SCDOT was estimating would be required. In the end, the Tidewater/Flatiron team - working as Palmetto Bridge Constructors - even beat its own four-year timetable by a month.

Tidewater/Flatiron also was the low bidder for designing and building the $243 million Interstate 10 Escambia Bay Bridge replacement for the Florida Department of Transportation. Hurricane Ivan scattered pieces of the existing bridge to the bay floor. FDOT made temporary repairs but contracted with the joint venture to build a higher permanent replacement structure as quickly as possible.

It was a project that garnered national attention and bidders from around the country. The other firms competing for the contract included Archer Western, part of Walsh Group of Chicago/Traylor Brothers of Evansville, Ind., a joint venture, which submitted a bid of $317 million; and GM Contractors of Tampa at $360 million.

Next up, the joint venture partners secured a $193 million bid-build contract to reconstruct the Tampa Airport Interchanges (State Road 60) in Tampa. The work, broken into 30 phases, includes 20 bridges, signal systems and lighting and is scheduled for completion in 2010.

Again the Flatiron/Tidewater team's bid beat out those of the other qualified bidders by a significant margin. It was $35.2 million lower than Granite Construction Co.'s $228.2 million estimate; and $50 million better than Gilbert Southern Corp.'s $243 million price offer.

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Starting at the beginning

As with other entities, Tidewater and Flatiron unite to bring additional resources and financial strength to a project. Joint ventures spread risk and let partners combine expertise. Tidewater and Flatiron often pursue design-build projects.

"With design-build, you have a lot more leeway about the structure and design than with bid-build," said Wade Watson, vice president of Tidewater Skanska, responsible for joint ventures. "It's great for the owner and for the public and taxpayer. For the constructor, it makes life more difficult because you're trying to design and build at the same time, and things are changing."

Bob Walker, Tidewater vice president, said he chooses a design partner or subcontractor with a proven track record in the type of work needed and the resources to deliver the drawings on time.

"There has to be synergies between your team members," he added.

For instance, on the Cooper River project, Flatiron brought experience in drill shafts and cable stay, Skanska AB sent a few authorities on cable stay and Tidewater drew on its long track record in building large bridge projects. Parsons Brinckerhoff of New York designed the structure and MacDonald Architects of San Francisco consulted.

Once the team is in place, everyone contributes and questions the norm.

"One of the big things is to come up with innovative ideas on both design and construction to minimize cost and schedule," Walker said. "We have workshops and brainstorming sessions to look at multiple alternatives to the design and construction means and methods that suit our team and will satisfy the owner's requirements."

On the Cooper River Bridge, the team looked at completing the eight-lane bridge and interchanges within four years - instead of the five estimated by SCDOT - by dividing the project into five simultaneous $100 million jobs, each with its own team.

"What we try to do is come up with a better mousetrap," Watson said.

Tidewater and Flatiron leadership creates an open environment that encourages spontaneity and creativity. Watson said even seemingly weird ideas, such as draining the ocean, spur solutions to challenges.

"The way to reduce risk is to get twice as many ideas as you would have if you were doing it alone," Flatiron's French said. "We pick the best ones. There's no pride of ownership about who came up with the best idea."

Getting to work

Contract in hand, the partners immediately get to work. Palmetto Bridge Constructors, the Cooper River Bridge joint venture, was up and running within a month. To help forge a bond between people from the two companies, Skanska's European experts and local workers, the team held some social events and changed positions of people to ensure the best fit.

"In each of the five areas, I asked my superintendents to help assist me with culture building," Watson said. "It's about experiences, living life together and working through problems with respect for each other."

"People come from different backgrounds and different companies and are used to doing things different ways. A lot of it is building a culture change and bonding with people and sorting out people. I call it getting the right people on the bus and in the right seat."

Watson initially places people based on resumes and briefly talking with the person. But once on the job, where he can evaluate their skills, he may change them to a position for which they are better suited. On the Cooper River project, the job started with a design-build coordinator working with engineers on design issues. As the work progressed, the team no longer required someone in that position. Watson tapped that person to be an assistant project manager, where he worked on business issues as well as following up on design concerns.

Also the project began with a superintendent for each tower and the main span, but later Watson transferred the main span superintendent to oversee decoration.

Tidewater and Flatiron alternate leading the project. Walker said determining who leads depends on which company is better suited to manage a specific project. For instance, Flatiron led on the Carolina Bays and is managing reconstruction of the Tampa Airport Interchanges project. Tidewater led the Cooper River and Escambia Bay bridges.

"The bottom line is it's about good people, intelligent people," Watson said. "It's about the culture, about getting people to think out of the box and encouraging them to speak up. It's about educating and training them. It's a people business and all about people."

Useful sources:

Cooper River Bridge
http://www.cooperriverbridge.org

Tampa Airport Interchanges
http://www.mytbi.com/content/users/projectinfo.asp?projectID=72&RoadID=11