Texas Capitol Complex Phase II Concrete by the Numbers

• 4 million square feet of elevated concrete decks installed in under 12 calendar months
• 135 total elevated decks placed across three structures
• 3-4 elevated decks, or more than 2,200 cubic yards of concrete, placed weekly at peak construction
• 11 weeks of schedule savings
• 430 total structural inspections for vertical and horizontal concrete placements
• More than 296,000 working hours completed by JE Dunn Self-Perform

We control our own destiny when we self-perform work on projects. The quality of our collaborative efforts directly impacts our project outcomes, especially when it comes to meeting or even expediting a project timeline. They say everything is bigger in Texas, and we’ve found the saying to be true for JE Dunn’s work on Phase II of the Texas Capitol Complex. Surprisingly, though, the solution we’ve found to tackling complex challenges is.

Several practices have helped us achieve success in Phase II, but one daily 15-minute meeting has made a major difference. JE Dunn Self-Perform’s dedication to unmatched communication enabled us to complete more than 1.4 million square feet of elevated concrete slabs in just under 12 calendar months and a total of 11 weeks of schedule savings for the three structures that make up this project. These structures are:

• Lavaca State Office Building (LVSB)

• North Congress State Office Building (NCSB)

• Pedestrian Mall North Congress (PMNC)

As construction manager at risk (CMAR) for all three builds in Phase II, JE Dunn is executing one of its largest self-perform scopes to date in the region, second only to work on a Meta data center in Temple, Texas. The scope encompasses more than $100 million of self-perform work across over 100,000 cubic yards of concrete for these structures

Our work on Phase II of the Texas Facilities Commission’s (TFC) Capitol Complex continues efforts from the first phase to consolidate all state agencies into one complex. Transforming the Texas Capitol Complex will increase operational efficiency, reduce office lease costs, and improve the overall user experience for visitors with new civic spaces, pedestrian-friendly streets, and strengthened connections to the surrounding community. TFC hired JE Dunn to manage a single guaranteed maximum price (GMP) contract. JE Dunn’s approach to managing this massive project is assigning dedicated staff and resources to each of the structures.

At peak construction level, we divided our group of 120 JE Dunn craft laborers and 15 dedicated place-and-finish members into two crews. One crew is tackling LVSB, the largest of the three buildings, while the second crew is completing all work for NCSB and PMNC.

All in, these two crews are responsible for coordinating all the moving parts needed to complete scopes for foundations, drilled piers, and elevated turn-key concrete, involving all project form, place, and finish work. To ensure limited time, space, and talent are all resourced appropriately for these simultaneous builds, we had to get creative with how we communicated with one another. Enter: Plan of Next Day (POND) meetings.

The idea behind POND meetings is simple. If we plan for the small details consistently, we can avoid bigger issues or rework down the line. Members and leadership from both crews meet on-site every afternoon for 15 minutes.

The crews discuss critical elements for the next day like progress updates, upcoming tasks, inspections, and vertical and horizontal placements scheduled. We use visual aids such as plan views of all three building sites to plot out who will be where and when, so we can see in real-time how our real estate and resources are being used for deliveries, pump setting, place and finisher equipment locations, confirmations, and inspections among other tasks.

The meeting is short, but effective. It keeps our crews accountable to one another and ultimately makes us more efficient as we identify opportunities to fast-track work and avoid possible delays caused by miscommunication. Taking just 15 minutes each day to regroup and focus can accumulate into real-time schedule savings. We’ve seen it happen where we saved an entire day on an elevated deck pour because of our upfront communication.

Adding another meeting isn’t the right solution for every project, but it’s one we plan to use going forward on the TFC Capitol Complex Phase II project. JE Dunn has invited team members from Nashville and our other offices to shadow the crews and learn from successful strategies like POND meetings.

We’ve seen that building a daily habit of communicating with one another helps us stay in lockstep with our stakeholders, vendors, and trade partners. POND meetings are another way we can create pathways for us to communicate our needs and identify opportunities to take advantage of when the weather is good, labor is available, and deliveries are on time to expedite schedule and deliver exceptional results.

To learn more about our Self-Perform capabilities around the U.S., visit our Services page.