How Helmkamp Can Make Your Job Easier

Have you ever asked yourself, “Can my contractor make my life easier by managing the entire construction project?” The answer is YES.

We are often contracted to do work on parts of a project, only to find the customer could have benefited from us running the entire project. It allows the customer to focus on their job, and impart the responsibilities to Helmkamp Construction to carry out the project as planned.

An example of this is a recent project we completed for ELANTAS PDG, Inc. one of our industrial clients, where we replaced two of their vessels at the St. Louis facility.

The vessels replaced were originals in a 50-year-old building. Here is a look at the top of the vessels used to manufacture their products. Pipefitters, electricians, millwrights, ironworkers, laborers, and insulators all worked together to complete the replacement within an outage window in tight working conditions.

Being able to manage the overall project allowed us a few different opportunities that ultimately helped the project become successful.

  1. Helmkamp was brought on early, during the preconstruction phase of the project. This “team” approach allowed us to take the information that was beginning to come in from the submittal process and field verify it against existing conditions. This combination of technology and detailed field work eliminated many potential fabrication issues, clashes, etc. that would have led to schedule delays.
  2. There were a little over 1000 submittals on this project, of which 300 of those were valves; some very specialized with lead times to match. The submittal process was very organized which helped to keep things moving forward, manage deliveries and eliminate missing submittals, approvals, etc.
  3. The project was completed during a scheduled outage. Missing that window would cause ELANTAS PDG, Inc. to miss deliveries to customers. Managing the entire project allowed us to schedule the work efficiently, and manage the critical path for a successful completion date.

Here you see Helmkamp Construction’s in-house Millwrights installing an agitator on one of the vessels. The picture shows the safety requirements for this part of the project. Utilizing a confined space retrieval system, the entrant (not shown) is connected to the retrieval system, while a millwright is holding the agitator steady. The attendant (shown here in orange) is observing the entrant ensuring their safety.

Helmkamp Superintendent, Ron Kinzinger said, “The area I believe Helmkamp had an advantage in managing the project was with the use of Procore. Every valve, instrument, specialty item, and piece of equipment was tracked using Procore. This process was effective in creating a streamline process for distributing, tracking, and approving submittals. The use of Procore insures the correct part would be ordered, inventoried, and ready for installation.”

ELANTAS PDG manager Ken Brooks said, “Helmkamp Construction has a hard working and dedicated staff of employees. A special thanks to Ron Kinzinger, Brian Bechard, Mike Farrell, Andrew Summers, Zach Czaia, Tim Sergent, Jeff Suchman, the rest of the Helmkamp team, ICON Mechanical, Schaeffer Electric, Ambitech Engineering, MAK Sales, McEnery Automation, and the ELANTAS PDG team. Everybody worked hard, worked together towards the common goal, and the result was a very successful project. The outage schedule was short, the work area was small, and of course, the temperature and humidity in St. Louis made for a hot atmosphere. After the completion of a project, you look back and wish things would have gone this way, or you wish you had hired a different company. However, if I could do it over I would still hire the exact same team. This was our first project with Helmkamp Construction, and hopefully just the beginning of a long relationship.”

If you have an upcoming project, where you could benefit from the contractor managing the entire project, rather than simply performing a portion of the job, contact your Helmkamp account manager. Having Helmkamp Construction, an experienced contractor on your side, will ensure a safe and successful project. Helmkamp Construction has the necessary tools to eliminate the headache of managing the project yourself.