WORKING WITH AN ENGINEERING NEWS-RECORD (ENR) TOP 5 CONTRACTOR KEPT MY SWORD SHARP AND PROVIDED MY STUDENTS WITH INSIGHT INTO ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES IN NORTH AMERICA

Kiewit’s Faculty Scholar program is a unique opportunity for university faculty to experience the culture, the operations and the goals of an Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 5 Contractor. During the summer of 2017 I had the opportunity to work with the Northern California District office of Kiewit splitting my time between the estimating department in Fairfield, CA and the Pinole-Hercules Water Pollution Control Plant project in Pinole, CA.

One of the more difficult tasks for construction companies is how to align a summer intern with their ongoing operations while providing a rewarding experience for the student. In this case, as a former industry professional that transitioned to academia, the Kiewit Faculty Scholar program was in essence, a summer internship for faculty teaching in the built environment fields (i.e. civil engineering, construction management, architecture, structural engineering, etc.). A key aspect of the Faculty Scholar program was the pre-planning between the Kiewit staff and myself.

Upon acceptance of the position, I had several conference calls with Kiewit management, through the liaison of their University Relations group, where I shared my goals for the program and the Kiewit professionals developed a work-plan to assist me in reaching those goals. The work-plan would be broken into two parts, understanding the estimating process that Kiewit utilizes in an office environment and getting insight into how they manage their jobsite operations on an active project.

The end-result of this work-plan included deliverables for successful completion. The creation of two learning modules to share with other faculty that are part of the Kiewit University Relations program as well as for use with my students. For these learning modules, I focused on creating artifacts that align with the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) Program Learning Objectives (PLOs). As the ACCE is the accrediting body of many construction management programs across the United States, I felt it important for consistency in the classroom as well as with the objectives of the Kiewit University Relations group. As such, I created learning modules that met the requirements of ACCE PLO #5 – Create construction project schedules and PLO #7 – Analyze construction documents for planning and management of construction processes.