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EXPERTISE

Felix is committed to being an industry leader in safety, quality, and the community. We strive to maintain a safe and healthy workplace, exceed the quality expectations of our clients, and believe our commitment to our surrounding community is vital to everyone’s well-being and an essential aspect of our business.

SAFETY

Felix’s number one goal is to provide a safe working environment for our employees and subcontractors

Our safety is reflected in our lost time injury rate. We have not had a lost-time injury in over 15 years (or nearly 4,500,000 man-hours). We have achieved this goal by:

  • Proper planning for both known and potential hazards
  • Employee safety training (all of our employees carry a card listing their current safety training)
  • Selecting only those subcontractors who share our goal of providing a safe working environment
  • Holding pre-job conferences with our subcontractors to review their safety programs
  • Our Project Superintendents inspecting the work in progress daily, and correct potential hazards
  • Continuing to foster a culture at Felix Construction where safety is everyone’s responsibility

Our management staff promotes a culture of Safety First that permeates the entire organization. Our most valuable assets are our dedicated hard-working employees.

QUALITY

Felix has built our reputation on the highest quality

We have built our reputation that keeps bringing clients back to us when they require our services by being a contractor that produces projects of the highest quality without sacrificing cost or safety.

Our Quality Control Program includes not only field quality inspections but also document review for both accuracy and the most current methods and materials. Daily inspections by our Project Superintendents and QC team on site will answer questions and resolve issues early, eliminating unexpected costs and non-compliance issues.

EXPERTS IN ALTERNATIVE DELIVERY

Felix utilizes our expertise in APDM to build quality projects

In many states (Arizona and Texas included) public and private entities may acquire construction services through means other than traditional Low Bid.

The traditional Low Bid Method (sometimes called Hard Bid or Design-Bid-Build) may be very familiar, but it does not necessarily offer the best value for Owners.  Alternative Project Delivery Methods (APDM or Alternative Delivery) may offer Owners improved schedule and cost savings.

Construction Manager at Risk
Design Build
Job Order Contracting

CONSTRUCTION MANAGER AT RISK

During the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR, CM@R, sometimes pronounced “C – mar”) process the contractor provides constant feedback to the Owner and Engineer during the design phase. This comes in the form of continual development of the budget and schedule as the project takes shape. The contractor is then able to provide direction to help minimize costs and construction duration. In return, the CMAR contractor minimizes their risk when developing the ultimate price of the job, called the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP), because the intimate details of the project are known from the beginning. This decrease in risk generally equates to a lower overall cost. The CMAR process also allows for the early procurement of long-lead equipment and materials with volatile pricing (for example steel) prior to the project’s design is 100% completed.

Felix Construction has successfully completed over 30 water and wastewater CMAR projects for municipalities, developers, and private water/wastewater companies ranging from a $700,000 digester improvement project to a $15,000,000 WWTP expansion project.

Best Suited

New renovation or complex projects that are a sequence of schedule sensitive, difficult to define, or subject to change. This delivery method is approached with a team concept.

Least Suited

New projects easily defined lacking schedule sensitivity.

Organization

The Owner independently hires an Engineer and the CMAR Contractor. Typically the CMAR Contractor is brought in between the 30% and 60% design stage. The CMAR and Design Engineer then work through the remaining design phase (pre-Construction phase) to ensure the project is designed to the requirements of the Owner and meets the project intent without compromising on price and quality.

Pros

  • Qualification-based selection
  • Team concept
  • Common goals & objectives
  • Design phase assistance
  • Faster schedule delivery
  • Less expensive
  • Change flexibility
  • Fewer claims & legal issues

Cons

  • Qualification-based selection
  • Team concept
  • Common goals & objectives
  • Design phase assistance
  • Faster schedule delivery
  • Less expensive
  • Change flexibility
  • Fewer claims & legal issues

DESIGN-BUILD

Design-Build (D-B, D/B) process is an Alternative Delivery method that teams up a Design Engineer and Contractor right from the start. The Owner will select a single Contractor/Design Engineer team (this is different from CMAR in that instead of the Owner having separate contracts with the Design Engineer and Contractor, the Design Engineer, because of bonding abilities, is typically a subcontractor to the Contractor). The engineer is able to rely on the contractor’s expertise on schedule (long lead items), costs, constructability, etc. during the development of the design. These types of projects tend to go very smoothly due to the fact that parties are all on the same team and have input right from the start.

Felix Construction has successfully delivered D-B projects for municipalities, developers, and private water/wastewater companies since 2000. Our D-B project experience ranges from a $300,000 Injection Well Project to a $6,000,000 WWTP project.

Best Suited

New or renovation projects that have highly aggressive schedule requirements.

Least Suited

Projects that are difficult to define and are less schedule sensitive with participants lacking an understanding of the Design-Build process.

Organization

The Owner hires a Design-Build team which consists of an Engineer and a General Contractor.

Pros

  • Qualifications-based selection or best value selection
  • Single point of responsibility for design and construction
  • Team concept
  • Common goals & objectives
  • Faster schedule delivery
  • Less expensive
  • Fewer claims & legal issues

Cons

  • The owner must provide project perimeters — costs, schedule, quality, etc.
  • Loss of check and balance
  • It May be more difficult for the Owner to manage the project
  • Team concepts must be implemented — open communication, trust, commitment, etc.
  • Perception of a threat to “in house” staff

JOB ORDER CONTRACTING

Job Order Contracting (JOC, sometimes pronounced “JOCK”) is an Alternative Delivery method that is commonly used by municipalities and private water/wastewater entities for renovation and upgrade work or typical service agreement-type work. JOC contracts are also used for emergency projects where there is no time to go through the traditional channels of contract negotiation. In JOC, the Owner selects one or multiple JOC contractors to be “on-call” for a certain time duration or budget amount. These selected Contractors negotiate rates upfront for labor, equipment, overhead, etc. When a construction need arises, the Owner selects the best suited JOC contractor for the work and issues them a Job Order (JO). Oftentimes, Job Orders do not have any formal design documents. If formal engineering is necessary, once a JO is issued, it often takes on the characteristic of CMAR or D-B where the contractor works closely with a Design Engineer to solve the Owner’s problems.

Felix Construction Company has successfully completed over 15 JOC contracts with over 350 individual Job Orders for numerous municipalities and private water/wastewater companies. We have also been re-selected for every JOC that has been up for renewal, further reinforcing our commitment to Owners and their projects.

Best Suited

Projects with schedule sensitivity, single or multi-trade needs, repairs, alterations, or renovation projects. JOC requires dedication and trust from both the Owner and Contractor to do what is in the best interest of the project.

Least Suited

Simple projects with defined work scope lacking schedule sensitivity.

Organization

The Owner hires a Contractor directly to do the Job Orders. Design work may fall under this also where an Engineer is hired by the Job Order Contractor.

Pros

  • Qualification-based or best value selection
  • Faster schedule delivery
  • Reduced “up-front” time & cost
  • Less expensive
  • Fewer changes
  • An incentive for higher quality
  • Trade subcontractor may perform as JOC and does not have to be a general contractor

Cons

  • Perception of a threat to “in-house” staff
  • Requires teamwork to reach potential
  • Need trained Owner personnel to best administer a contract
Felix Construction