Pre-Construction Planning: Essential for Project Success - Essay Sample

Introduction

Planning is essential for any construction job. The planning period for construction is called the pre-construction, which has various stages for the contractor to work through for the project to be finished successfully. The pre-construction planning involves thinking of everything to do with costs, services, possible scenarios, and contingency that may be encountered. Pre-construction planning is essential when it comes to having standard goals that ensure the project is within the time and budget. It makes it easy to prepare for any unforeseen difficulties that the project may face and develop strategies to handle any challenge. The pre-construction stages are fundamental for the entire construction process and form the basis of this planning period.

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The initial stage in pre-construction planning is the meeting between the client and the contractor. The face to face meeting between the parties will allow going over the goals for the project to be constructed. Some things that may be discussed at this level meeting is the initial budget and the likely time the period would take (ProEst, 2018 ). The meeting at the initial stage is more about understanding the vision of the client towards the project but nit details. The next stage involves the definition of the objectives of the project. After outlining the overall project that includes looking for architectural designs and blueprints, the client has to ask the contractor questions. The questions allow the contract to evaluate the project and develop the main objectives. These objectives include the scope of work, budget, and schedule.

Understanding the greater scope is essential in ensuring that the objectives of the client are better envisioned. It describes the work to be performed in the course of construction. Setting the budget involves predicting the initial number or price the client wants to spend on the project. The budget is an essential component to realize the actual project and helps in determining the materials needed, what to be hired, and the construction site. While creating the budget, the contractor focuses on how to save opportunities using cost estimating and value optimization. Setting a schedule is essential for pre-construction planning and provides the checklist of when the project will be completed (ProEst, 2018). The schedule allows one to know ahead of time to make a difference in the project and stay on task with a clear schedule.

During the pre-construction planning, the construction team should pay special attention to the initial schematic design. The initial schematic design is created at the initial evaluation and helps to serve as the first visual to the client and informs of what the project will look. There is also the need to analyze the construction site before the construction process. If the site is found to be unsuitable to meet the goals of the client, it will be hard for the construction process to move forward. Thus, it requires that the contractor visits the construction site and consider the feasibility to find out if it is suitable for construction before recommending the site. Analysis of the site entails the evaluation of the soil for a proper foundation, traffic flow, landscape, and parking, among other aspects (ProEst, 2018). Procurement management is an essential aspect as well that should be considered during the pre-construction planning process. The procurement defines the time it may take to acquire the needed material. Finally, the acquisition of proper approvals should be considered before the construction process. The approvals include the proper certification for the construction process and the building permits before anything is performed.

Reference

ProEst (October 10, 2018). Pre-Construction Planning Stages. Industry News. Retrieved from https://www.proest.com/pre-construction-planning-stages/