The Southeast office has been based in Charlotte for approximately 17 years . It has grown to become a specialist in industrial work throughout the Southeast , with federal work also forming part of its repertoire . “ I have been here about two-and-a-half years ,” shares Mike Bedell . “ In the past , we pursued a lot of federal work in North and South Carolina , southern Virginia and Florida , and it made sense for it to be conducted out of this office because of the location . It is also such a good sector to be in when the economy is on a downward turn . Although we have a strong presence throughout this region , one of our recent projects is up in Asheville . It is the largest job we have spearheaded from the Southeast office .”
Flexibility and resilience
The project Mike Bedell refers to is a contract with Pratt Whitney , a business that manufactures airfoil parts for jet engines . “ It is a million-square-foot facility , and we started preconstruction in 2020 . The work is scheduled for completion early next month , and the work is worth around $ 315 million , which , at the time of the award , was Walbridge ’ s largest singleaward contract ,” discusses Mike Willams .
“ When we first got involved , the project was vastly over budget , and we had to do a lot of value engineering and work with the owner to reduce some of the financial scope . Happily , we were able to get within an acceptable budget for the client to proceed ,” Mike Bedell adds .
Money was the first challenge . It was soon followed by a massive increase in material costs and material availability after the pandemic impacted overall inflation . “ That hit so many areas of our work ; roofing , drywall , mechanical , electrical – we had to walk the owner through every step so they could understand it was a market issue . From the time we received the bid , to the time we were able to sign the sub-contractors , the price influx was pretty drastic .
“ When we finally got to construction , we had the typical obstacles to overcome . For
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