Everything had to fall into place

Peter Turla, a NASA engineer and time management guru once wrote, "A plan is what, a schedule is when. It takes both a plan and a schedule to get things done."

From the beginning of the Summerland School building project, the plan was clear: construct a 130,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility.

A schedule was set, too, with a completion date of December 2021 circled on the calendar.

To complete the building project nearly four months ahead of schedule, especially during a global pandemic, may seem like a miracle.

In some ways, starting school for all Summerland students on Aug. 30 is miraculous.

Superintendent Kyle Finke and construction site employees reviewed several punch list items approximately one week before the school bell rang for the first time.

A punch list is a list of items which need to be addressed before a project is considered complete.

Once school was in session, construction workers put finishing touches on the music rooms, stage and auxiliary gym and Fink signed off on any items requiring attention.

Completing the project early is also evidence of business as usual for Haumann Construction, Inc., the general contractor overseeing the project.

Best case scenario for the Lincoln-based construction company to deliver before deadline: Everything has to fall into place.

Call it serendipity, if you want, but Hausmann team members were committed to meeting an early deadline, if possible.

While the blueprint for Summerland is unique, Hausmann Construction has worked on multiple new school construction projects across the state, including Scottsbluff, Leigh, Newman Grove and Lincoln Northwest.

Steven Thiele, vice president of Hausmann Construction, said, "No other school projects of this magnitutde in the area have been built this quickly."

The O'Neill project, a 65,000 square foot addition, took 19 months; Schuyler and Leigh - both smaller addition projects - 16 months. Columbus High School, a new construction project featuring 257,000 square feet, took 22 months for completion.

The Summerland project was fast-tracked, in the beginning.

"We started bidding things out and building things before the design was complete," Thiele said. "We've only had 100% of the design for a little over a year. We started construction about three months before we had a complete design,"

By implementing building information modeling - an intelligent 3D model - several processes were simplified.

Getting a jumpstart gave construction crews additional warm weather months to work outside. Waiting until the design was complete before starting construction would have pushed the entry date back at last three months, possibly more if any hiccups were face during that time.

"Duct work, piping, electrical, and toilet carriers were prefabricated off site, so it could be installed faster on site," Thiele said.

Eight months before the bond passed, Hausmann employees knew the first piece of precast wall would need to be set by July 10, if the building were to be completed on time or before deadline.

"It was actually set July 11," Thiele said.

The roof would need to be in place by Dec. 30, 2020.

"We had milestones over a year in advance," he said.

By Sept. 14, 2020, the day of the Topping Out ceremony at the Summerland site, the project was progressing on schedule.

"At that time, there were still several variables to address prior to committing to an early turnover in August (2021), including potential COVID-19 impacts and winter work."

Those variables included material deliveries, completion of work in areas schedule to be turned over and timely decision making.

At the job site, Dave Tobar, Nate Petersen and John Wieser filled supervisory roles, maintaining work flow, ensuring work was completed sequentially, on time and correctly.

Approximately 12 to 15 carpenters from Hausamnn Construction worked on site. On any given day, Thiele estimated at least 100 workers - between Hausmann and subcontractors combined - worked on the cornfield school.

According to Thiele, the entire project team, including subcontractors, material suppliers, design team and school district all did their part to bring the plan to fruition.

The pandemic provided several challenges for the construction process.

Thiele said worker availability can be a challenge any time, but it was more prevalent once COVID-19 hit.

"The pandemic certainly contributed to that challenge at times throughout the Summerland project," Thiele said.

Creative scheduling with subcontractors allowed the construction management team to overcome these challenges and not let it impact the schedule.

Job safety protocols, relating to COVID-19, were put in place during the construction process.

Social distancing on the job site and a mask mandate were in effect for awhile. Disinfectant protocols were also implemented.

Thiele said the Summerland project differs from other school projects the company was been involved with.

"This was the first time we've worked with three separate districts. The collaboration and excitement shared by the three communities is what made this project possible," he said.

Another unique aspect of this project for Hausmann Construction is the number of employees who are past graduates of Clearwater, Ewing or Orchard schools.

"It was definitely one of a kind and we couldn't be more proud to have been able to be a part of it," Thiele said.