UW-Madison loses out on Gordon Commons contract request (UPDATE)

Published: June 17, 2010
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By Paul Snyder
The University of Wisconsin System must follow state contracting laws for UW-Madison’s Gordon Commons project despite arguments that to do so threatens timelines and student safety.
Wisconsin law requires state building projects follow a multiple-prime contracting system, under which the state contracts with each major construction discipline and opens all bids at once to [...]

Subs want bill to kill bid shopping spree

Published: April 2, 2010
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Comments: 1

By Paul Snyder
Subcontractors searching for state project deliveries perfectly free of bid shopping might have to settle for a good-enough compromise.
“Is trying to stop any bid shopping after the general contractor’s bid better than what there is now? Yeah,” said Jeff Beiriger, executive director of the American Subcontractors Association of Wisconsin. “But is that the [...]

State puts design before nursing school approval

Published: January 25, 2010
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By Paul Snyder
There’s a catch to the state’s request for architectural/engineering firms interested in designing a university building: The project has not been approved.
The Wisconsin Department of Administration’s Division of State Facilities is accepting consultant questionnaires through Feb. 9 for preliminary design work on an estimated $37.6 million nursing school for the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
For [...]

Subcontractors seek project delivery guarantees

Published: December 15, 2009
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By Paul Snyder
Subcontractors want guarantees the lowest responsible bid still will win the jobs before the Wisconsin Legislature passes a bill changing delivery methods for state projects.
The bill right now does not include those guarantees, leading some subs to argue in favor of the status quo.
“The system right now is completely transparent,” said S. Michael [...]

State might tie local support to RFPs

Published: October 22, 2009
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Paul Snyder
paul.snyder@dailyreporter.com

Companies that propose projects for the state might soon be responsible for drumming up local support to shield Wisconsin Building Commission members from neighborhood backlash.
“I think we should look at putting into (requests for proposals) that developers have the responsibility to engage local communities,” said David Helbach, administrator in the state Department of Administration’s [...]

Architects adapt for BIM boom

Published: July 2, 2009
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Paul Snyder
paul.snyder@dailyreporter.com
Architects realize the potential and potential headaches of a switch to building-information modeling for large state construction projects.
“I just wrestled with it for two hours on the simplest thing,” said Josh Johnson, president of the American Institute of Architects Wisconsin and an architect with Madison-based Aro Eberle Architects Inc. “There will be growing pains [...]

State fights odds for online bidding

Published: June 4, 2009
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Paul Snyder
paul.snyder@dailyreporter.com
A state agency remains committed to launching an electronic bidding system in eight months despite uncertain legislative support, an untried system and industry representatives who say there are more important issues.
“There are systems in place for horizontal building, but not vertical building,” said David Helbach, administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Administration’s Division of [...]

Contractors sound off on bid doc changes

Published: May 28, 2009
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Paul Snyder
paul.snyder@dailyreporter.com
A few tweaks to bidding documents for state projects could reduce confusion, but contractors are cautioning the state not to go too far with its changes.
“Whether you like the process or not, or whether you’ve made an error or not — which we all have — the system is very fair,” said David Voss, [...]

Bid errors open door for interpretation

Published: May 18, 2009
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Paul Snyder
paul.snyder@dailyreporter.com
Contractors are making more mistakes more often on bid documents, prompting state officials to broach the prickly prospect of giving themselves more discretion in awarding projects.
“I’d say with almost every project, we see one contractor disqualified for a mistake in the documents,” said David Helbach, an administrator in the Wisconsin Department of Administration’s Division [...]

New arena could be in cards

Published: April 2, 2009
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Paul Snyder and Dustin Block
paul.snyder@dailyreporter.com
dustin.block@dailyreporter.com
Plans to spend $23 million over the next 10 years maintaining Milwaukee’s Bradley Center doesn’t rule out eventually building a new arena, according to Bradley Center President Steve Costello.
“We’re focused on the here and now,” Costello said about the maintenance plan, which is designed to replace or upgrade systems to [...]

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THIS MONTH'S WISCONSIN BUILDER



The tree architect

Roald Gundersen’s ideas are as big as the trees he shinnies up like a man half his age. The Stoddard-based “tree architect” wants to take wood construction far beyond the rustic cottages with which people associate him, but first he has to convince builders and architects of trees’ potential. Caley Clinton heads to western Wisconsin to see what future the forest holds.

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