Groundbreaking may be one of the most visible project milestones, but many of the decisions that shape a project’s cost and construction plan happen months earlier.

On the Richmond ARPA Main Pump Station Improvements project, the City of Richmond, TYLin, and MEB are using Construction Manager at-Risk (CMAR) delivery to investigate existing conditions, advance procurement, and address challenges during design.

The team divided the work into three guaranteed maximum price (GMP) packages to keep the project moving as design and permitting progressed. The first package secured long-lead equipment through competitive bidding, with pricing approximately 15% below the anticipated budget. The second will allow early onsite work to begin once the land-disturbance permit is received. The third includes improvements within the existing pump station and construction of a new above-ground electrical building.

MEB also took an active role in identifying potential challenges before they reached the field. The team located existing ductbanks and fiber-optic infrastructure within the footprint of the new electrical building, completed additional geotechnical borings to investigate subsurface rock, and assessed existing facilities for asbestos and lead-based paint.

That information helped the team plan the temporary relocation of two existing transformers, coordinate ductbanks beneath the new building slab, and work with TYLin to develop a more cost-effective foundation. MEB’s constructability feedback also helped reduce the cost of the cast-in-place concrete bid package by 20%.

Advancing three GMPs at once takes more than careful coordination—it requires shared confidence across the project team. The TYLin’s early understanding of the our needs helped keep each package moving, while the City relied on accurate design-progress estimates and trusted that the work could be delivered within budget. That collaborative mindset also created room for meaningful constructability feedback, ultimately saving the City of Richmond 20% on the cast-in-place concrete bid package.

“The value of preconstruction is giving the team time to act. By identifying conditions early and staying open to constructability feedback, we are making the project more predictable and delivering meaningful savings for the owner.”
// Tim Ratay, Preconstruction Executive

For owners, predictability may be the most valuable deliverable of all. A clearer picture of cost, schedule, and risk before construction begins creates the freedom to act while choices are still available. In Richmond, early collaboration is doing exactly that—transforming hidden conditions into informed decisions and demonstrating that a successful project can begin long before the first shovel hits the ground.