Welliver Simplifies Construction Administration for the Cornell University North Campus Residential Expansion Project

Since 1898, Welliver has earned the confidence of clients by providing construction management, pre-construction, general construction, and design/build services that meet the highest standards of quality.

Welliver is a well-established, fifth-generation, family-owned construction firm providing construction management, pre-construction, general construction, and design/build services that meet the highest standards of quality. Welliver serves a diverse range of markets including healthcare, industrial, higher education, K-12 education, and commercial/residential.

The NCRE provides Cornell University with the ability to house 100% of its first-year students in developmentally appropriate campus housing and 100% of its sophomore students in campus residence halls, co-ops, and affiliated housing.

With the addition of approximately 2,000 new student beds, new dining facilities, recreation spaces, and program lounges on Cornell’s North Campus, Student & Campus Life is primed to reshape the student residential experience at Cornell University.

Welliver was challenged with the complexity of the NCRE project, as it included two different sites and five buildings. This project required a substantial coordination effort for submittals and RFI processing across several trade consultants, engineering, and architect teams.

In addition, project team members in the office and field needed continual access to the most current set of drawings. Welliver is one of the longest-standing Newforma ConstructEx users and knew that the document control and customized configuration options available in Newforma ConstructEx could help them better organize and manage their project.

With two different sites and five buildings, Welliver needed a flexible way to keep track of submittals and RFIs while simplifying the submission process for their trade contractors. Newforma ConstructEx provides several configuration options, such as the ability to define custom categories to organize submittals and RFIs for the two sites and five buildings. Trade contractors were then able to select multiple categories for each submittal or RFI, simplifying the process by eliminating the need to send the same submittal multiple times.

The project architect was also an experienced Newforma ConstructEx user and worked with the Welliver team to keep all drawings up to date in the Newforma ConstructEx Document Management module. All changes including Addendum, Architect’s Supplemental Instructions (ASIs) and Change Order Directives (CCDs) were uploaded in the Document Management module and linked to the Newforma ConstructEx Sheet Index. This enabled the project team to quickly access and download the most current set of drawings.

Newforma ConstructEx email notifications and automated workflow options also enabled Welliver to shorten the review cycle by using the auto-forward function to direct submittals and RFIs directly to the appropriate engineer or subconsultant for review. Email notifications and Newforma ConstructEx logs kept the architectural team informed of where the submittal or RFI was in the review process. Email reminders sent out for submittals or RFIs coming due or overdue helped the project team significantly reduce the length of time for reviews.

Using the Newforma ConstructEx ROI Calculator, Welliver processed 2,216 submittals and 1,521 RFIs for the Cornell University North Campus Expansion project. At an average bill rate of $60 per hour for an administrator, this resulted in savings of 747 hours and $44,844 over the duration of the project.

“Newforma ConstructEx has helped Welliver keep projects organized for many years. We plan to continue using Newforma ConstructEx as it is very easy for our project teams to use.” Mimi Petrillose, Manager, Project Administration