Pre-Construction Services

For more than a century, the Friede name has been recognized as an industry leader in construction across southern Wisconsin. This hard-earned reputation has been built on our ability to thoughtfully and efficiently plan, schedule, and build unique projects in our area. We believe that the more input we can garner from you and our construction partners on the front end, the smoother the project will go during the actual construction, leading to our ultimate goal of creating highly-satisfied clients.

We emphasize meticulous planning and thoughtful feedback, because we know that every decision made, and every action taken during design greatly impacts the entire project.  Our attention to detail and strict project control begins with our pre-construction services and carries through to completion.

Friede & Associates offers these pre-construction services, to ensure the fulfillment of all your specific requirements:

Pre-Construction services begin immediately after being selected as the general contractor for a project. At this point, the Friede team: 

• begins evaluating various potential project phases and bid packages to facilitate efficient and cost managed construction. 

• chooses a design partner and other key consultants based on their ability to perform architectural work, site and civil engineering, and mechanical design for the project. 

• continues the process by making preliminary budgets for each phase of the project through quantity and square-footage take-offs. 

• finalizes a detailed construction schedule for comment and review by our client once decisions have been made regarding the appropriate phases for the project.

Financing Your Project

Friede will work closely with you and your financial institution to provide the information necessary for their approval of your project. This may involve our staff accompanying you to meetings with your lender and the creation of imagery to better represent the scope of your project. By working in concert with you and your lender, we can better coordinate lending approval.

Community Assistance and Public Financing

The Friede project teams excel at assisting our clients with securing public assistance for their projects. The Friede team includes: a former bank lender, a regional economic development consultant, the former head of a public/private county economic development corporation, plan commission members, redevelopment authority members, and city council members. This wealth of public experience ensures that we will look for opportunities to secure both Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) assistance and low interest community loans wherever possible.

In addition to the services described above, we assist in providing any additional services to the project team necessary during the pre-construction phase. We believe that the more input on the front end, the smoother the project will go during construction, leading to our ultimate goal of creating highly-satisfied clients. 

Concept and Design

We begin immediately to seek out information on your business, including your goals, challenges, budget and overall vision for the project. Once the project parameters have been clearly defined, including the timeline, budget and location, the architectural design phase can begin. At this point, some of the initial design strategy work may have already begun through the project investigation phase. From here, all project team members will work together to develop the best possible design to help the project succeed.

The project team will assess areas for cost savings and optimized productivity, while also meeting functional requirements and style preferences. The overall project vision is established during this phase, and preliminary drawings are presented to the owner.

Project Construction Budget

Friede will prepare a preliminary budget shortly after the major project requirements are identified. We will update the budget as plans progress, so as to keep costs up-to-date. If the possibility of Friede not being able to hit a budget occurs, we will immediately advise the client and make recommendations to correct the issue.

Construction Planning

Friede identifies the long-lead time items and expedites their delivery to ensure we keep to our schedule. We also carefully review site constraints and plan our use of the site in advance of mobilizing to minimize disruption and allow minimally impeded day-to-day operations.

Value Engineering

Friede weighs the construction cost and impact on timeliness of additional or alternative materials and equipment. We implement ideas and systems that might reduce costs without sacrificing our high-quality finished product. We recommend alternative solutions to the design to improve constructability, feasibility, cost, or performance, if at all possible. Learn more about value engineering here>>>

Featured Pre-Construction Projects

Permitting and State Approvals

The Friede project team can assist with special state permitting of the project, if necessary due to end use. Oftentimes, restaurants, senior housing projects and projects that are being built in floodplains or in close proximity to navigable streams and rivers require this type of approval. In these special cases, the project team will work with the owners and our designers to prepare the information necessary for public health agencies and/or the Department of Natural Resources for their review and approval. Projects that involve either demolition of existing structures or that require clean-up of previous users also require special handling that we can assist with.

Bidding the Project

When we get to the bidding portion of the pre-construction services, we work with the client to identify any preferred subcontractors and suppliers for the project. These may include firms who have unique experience, or may include firms that currently work with the client in some form. For the services that will be competitively bid on, we will distribute bidding documents through our “Pipeline Suite” online plan room. To facilitate participation by local contractors who might not be familiar with electronic document distribution, we will also make traditional paper plans and specific document sets available. 

To find additional subcontractors, Friede utilizes The Blue Book Building and Construction Network. This employee-owned enterprise represents the largest and most active construction network in America. For years, Friede has looked to The Blue Book Network for accurate, complete and updated information on regional and national subcontractors. This network provides a platform of cloud-based information for project-centric and customized marketing solutions. In addition, we use Pipeline Suite, as well as our own network of ABC of Wisconsin member subcontractors. 

For the services negotiated based on preferred suppliers, we review unit pricing and compare it to previous work the contractor has performed in the area and against current market prices and historic data that we receive on our other projects.

Additionally, we review the drawings and specifications with the architect and/or engineer to avoid areas of conflict or overlapping work. We also take into account time of performance, availability of labor, and provisions for temporary facilities. 

Bidder Qualifications

Friede works collectively with the client and engineer to prepare qualification criteria for the bidders. We review submittals for completeness, estimated cost, and proper use of labor. We can prepare a list of qualified bidders for the client, if they would like. Through many years of quality work, we have built a network of extremely capable subcontractors, and have taken a proactive approach to continue the expansion of our bidders to ensure the best quality and price for our client.

Open Book Results

Friede knows that our clients want to ensure they get a proper return on their investment. It has become widely known that we share a great deal of information with our clients, including our bidding results. We want you to be involved in the selection of suppliers and to understand where you will be investing your hard-earned dollars. 

We receive and tabulate all bids for the owner’s review and final decision on award. Additionally, we make recommendations on those awards based on our past experiences with the various subcontractors, since we have worked with many of them before. Prior to executing subcontract agreements, we conduct meetings with each of the major subcontractors and the owner to go over the scope of services that the contractor will be providing on the project. 

Most importantly, we establish fixed dollar guaranteed contracts so that financing can be arranged and the owner can rest easy knowing that everything has been covered and set. 

Proposed Project Staffing

Properly staffing the project will be at the forefront of the coordination effort to successfully complete the project. To meet this challenge, Friede will provide a project manager who will be responsible for the project and who will answer directly to the owner’s representatives. His or her primary responsibility will be: coordinating pre-construction estimating, scheduling, recommending bid packages, making recommendations on who to award the contracts to, reviewing submittals, scheduling project meetings, working with our in-office contract administrator to address requests for information (RFIs), handle payment requests, and prepare any necessary change orders.

Working with the project manager will be a full-time project superintendent, who will be responsible for coordinating the work of all contractors on site. Our superintendents are craftsmen by trade, so they may also be part of the construction crew and will be responsible for attending progress meetings and coordinating their daily work elements. The superintendent will work directly with the project manager on all contract issues.

Construction Contracts

Once the project has been completely estimated, Friede will prepare and present you with a proposed contract for your review and acceptance. Friede utilizes standard American Institute of Architects (AIA) contracts to minimize the need for expensive legal review of specialized contracts or complex contract clauses.

Pre-Construction Meeting

After receiving your plans and permits from the local entities, and utility plans and power company requirements have been made available, all subcontractors and major suppliers review them for any changes in scope, procedure, etc. This allows subcontracts and purchase orders to be finalized.

Following your review of the plans, schedule, and other construction details, we will hold a pre-construction meeting at our office or on the construction site with all subcontractors and major suppliers present. This meeting allows us the opportunity to go over any special requirements of schedule or coordination and to distribute subcontract packages, which include:

• Subcontracts: A subcontract is a legal agreement between Friede & Associates and its subcontractors ensuring proper performance on your project.

• Project Schedule: Subcontractors receive a project schedule prior to any construction starting so any potential conflicts that are seen can be resolved before construction begins. The schedule also makes subcontractors aware of when they are required to perform their work.