Time-savings was a major consideration when DPR’s Geoff Sutton, West Wing MEP Coordinator, sat down with the MEP subcontractors on the fast-tracked Good Samaritan West Wing addition project to brainstorm the most efficient way to manage the overhead utility coordination. The team needed detailed utility plans prior to the fast-approaching, elevated deck pours to determine where the slab penetrations should go. The solution: online MEP coordination.

The project team’s decision to implement a new method paid off. Despite extra up-front time setting up the FTP (file transfer protocol) site, Sutton estimates that the method shaved at least eight weeks off the coordination period compared to the traditional “stubby pencil” approach. In addition, online coordination has been tremendously successful in avoiding interferences in the congested spaces above the ceilings: MEP rough-in is progressing without significant conflicts.

It works like this: after an architectural background is loaded onto the Website, the mechanical, electrical, sheet metal and fire protection subcontractors design and post their detailed installation drawings online. The Website allows them to overlay their systems and thus spot and resolve conflicts immediately, rather than waiting to uncover them in coordination meetings using traditional Mylar overlays and a light table.

Another advantage: the ability to print a “super plot,” which incorporates all of the detail drawings onto a single sheet, clearly highlighting any conflicts.

Although he concedes there was a learning curve, Sutton advocates the method. “In five years this will probably be standard practice,” he says. “We’re doing it now, keeping one step ahead of everyone else.”