WHERE EXPERTISE TAKES FORM
By self-performing the expansive concrete scope of a new warehouse in Honolulu, HI, ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ not only provided budget efficiencies—but successfully mitigated the worst of permitting schedule delays.
In July 2024, ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ completed construction of a new last-mile logistics delivery station for a confidential online retailer. Set on a 14-acre site west of Downtown Honolulu in the heart of the industrial port area, the facility is the client’s first of its kind in the State of Hawaii.
Nearly all of the client’s similar facilities on the mainland have much larger sites, some of which are up to three times the size. To maximize the efficiency of the constrained Honolulu site, the warehouse was imagined as a three-story enclosed parking structure, with the ground floor allocated for warehouse and office space, and the upper two levels as parking decks. The client awarded the project to ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ based on the firm’s previous success with a similar six-story, 1,300-stall parking structure delivered in Southern California, among various other ground-up office buildings, film production studios, and interior renovations.
Early on in project discussions, ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ’s Parking Structure group proposed switching to cast-in-place concrete rather than precast concrete, which saved the client roughly $3 million. The cast-in-place concrete structure utilizes a Cunningham long-span beam forming system, allowing for expansive 45-foot bays. ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ opted to self-perform the extensive structural concrete scope, marking the firm’s largest self-perform project in the State of Hawaii to date. A total of 118 Cunningham beams were prefabricated at ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ’s fabrication yard in Riverside, CA, and shipped across the Pacific Ocean with the formwork.
Self-performing the concrete scope not only allowed ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ to provide budget efficiencies and specialized expertise—but allowed the team to mitigate the worst of challenging schedule delays.
Permitting bottlenecks in the State of Hawaii caused a number of challenges anticipated by ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ and the client at project onset. The structural permitting lead time was roughly two years when the project was awarded, and the construction plans required multiple rounds of review. Although ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ was able to receive the foundation permit fairly quickly, the project team eventually had to halt progress for three months until they received the structural permit.
To prevent excessive delay to the overall progress of the project, ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ received a temporary permit that allowed the team to perform additional scope while the official permit remained in review. The self perform concrete and general contracting teams worked closely with the client and the design team to determine what work could be completed out of sequence. Although ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ could not set the rebar down without receiving the official permit, the team was able to set anchors in the formwork up to the point of setting the rebar down, and forming the second floor of the building—an atypical approach that allowed work to begin right away once the official structural permit was received.
A testament to the expertise, efficiency, and professionalism of its Self-Perform Concrete group, ·¬ÇÑÓ°ÊÓ successfully completed the project two weeks ahead of schedule despite the three-month permitting delay.
