Juneau Construction Company, with a rich 26-year history, has established its name as a premier family-owned general contractor in the Southeast United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, GA and having a legacy of constructing for higher education and private developers, Juneau operates throughout the US Southeast including Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The mission at Juneau is simple yet powerful: “Strive to be best in class, while promoting family, teamwork, and a dedication to construction excellence.”

Wilson Haworth, Virtual Design + Construction Manager at Juneau, sheds light on the company’s aspirations. The keyword? Simplification. If a new technology or platform won’t simplify processes at Juneau, it won’t be considered. With the construction landscape continuously evolving and introducing shortened timelines and increased complexity, the key to staying ahead lies in deploying technology strategically.

“Our goal for all technology is to simplify processes. If it doesn't simplify a process, it doesn't matter how flashy or cool it is, we're not going to pursue it. We care about our people. We care about making the processes and the lives of our people better.”

- Wilson Haworth - Virtual Design + Construction Manager at Juneau Construction Company

Adapting to Change

Over the years, there’s been an undeniable shift towards projects wanting to be delivered faster and with more risk being transferred to the contractor. This change has led to Juneau increasing their adoption of design build projects, making it paramount for contractors to leverage technology, like Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Virtual Design & Construction (VDC), to stay ahead of the curve.

For Juneau, this is not just about adapting to change, but strategically positioning themselves to deliver efficiently. Their VDC department works closely with the team in the field, playing a crucial role in ensuring design coordination, as-built reality capture, digital project tracking and the usage of collaborative building models in a common data environment housed on ACC (Autodesk Construction Cloud) for all project stakeholder to access.

Embracing Technology: A Look Ahead

When pondering about the next big technological shift in the construction space, Haworth’s bets are firmly placed on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The focus is on transforming the reactive nature of reality capture work to a proactive one, aided by computer vision and machine learning. Currently the 3D scanning to coordinated 3D BIM model is a cumbersome and manual process, this can be transformed with machine learning and AI, says Haworth. One area where the Juneau team has made early gains in productivity has been the workflow going from drone scan of existing conditions or as-builts, to the 3D/4D site logistics planning and simulation model on the cmBuilder platform.

Enter cmBuilder

Speaking of proactive technology, cmBuilder stands out. For Juneau, cmBuilder has been transformative, enabling a democratization of site logistics planning, coordination and collaboration. With the VDC and site teams all able to access the 3D/4D site logistics plan on the web at any time, there leaves far less chance of error or misrepresentation of what the site team wants in the plan. With cmBuilder, the Juneau site team can open the platform and simply “draw what’s in their head”, as Haworth says, leaving far less to interpretation and clearly communicating their vision of how they plan to setup the site, what temporary resources will be needed, at what times, and how the project will be sequenced to optimize scheduling and safety. The VDC team can then feed cmBuilder with the latest BIM models, 3D scan mesh files from Drone Deploy and any other project data that can enable the site team to plan better, identify project risks and communicate far more effectively with subcontractors when doing project look-aheads.

“cmBuilder has democratized site logistics for us at Juneau. The platform has allowed our site team to actually draw what they want and then communicate that in the manner that they want… without having to play the telephone game of Superintendent talking to VDC, then sending it back out to trade partners.”

- Wilson Haworth - Virtual Design + Construction Manager at Juneau Construction Company

Beyond cmBuilder: Juneau’s Tech Vision

While cmBuilder remains pivotal to Juneau’s digital planning workflows, the company is not stopping there in the pursuit of powerful yet simplified workflows. ACC is another important tool in Juneau's arsenal, facilitating better engagement with design teams and project teams from project conception to completion. By bringing together engineers, contractors, and trade partners in a unified platform, Juneau is ensuring that these condensed construction project schedules, from design to realization, remain seamless and efficient with the use of a common data environment to drive collaboration.

In Conclusion

Juneau Construction Company’s forward-thinking vision and willingness to embrace transformative technology is undoubtedly leading the way. By leveraging platforms like cmBuilder, they are not only streamlining processes but also ensuring that their mark on the communities they serve remains indelible. As we continue to advance into the digital age, Juneau stands as a beacon for what is possible when tradition meets innovation.

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