Ohio Department of Transportation Honored with Harry H. Mellon Award of Excellence in Job Order Contracting

The Ohio Department of Transportation received The Harry H. Mellon Award of Excellence in Job Order Contracting for 2014 for emergency repairs to the roof of its District 4 headquarters building in Akron, OH. ODOT and Price Builders & Developers, Inc., the Cleveland-based general contractor for the project, were honored for innovative use of Gordian ezIQC®, a leading indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity construction procurement system.

Within two hours of being notified of the roof structure’s failure, the contractor assembled a team of licensed engineers and contractors and began analyzing the problem. The bottom chord, or lowest lateral support in the structure of the roof trusses, had failed. The failure meant the roof could collapse onto floors below if it was not stabilized immediately and then replaced.

As ODOT workers were evacuated from the building’s second floor, engineers and contractors determined how to temporarily shore up the bottom of the trusses. That work in part required removal of office furniture and the ceiling grid. Shoring posts and scaffolding were installed to transfer the weight of the roof trusses to the building’s structure.

Once Price Builders & Developers secured the building for use, the contractor worked with engineers to determine how to replace the entire roof truss system. Work on the $1.4 million project to replace the roof truss system in sections began in the winter of 2014.

The ezIQC system allowed ODOT to secure qualified, local contractors in a fast-paced manner, while following state procurement laws and revised codes. It also ensured unit prices were firm.

The Harry H. Mellon Award of Excellence in Job Order Contracting program was established in 2008 and is awarded annually. It recognizes excellence in using Job Order Contracting principles and practices while identifying unique and innovative ways the process can function in construction, repair and renovation work. It is sponsored by The Gordian Group. Through its co-founder, JOC inventor Harry H. Mellon, the company created Job Order Contracting, ezIQC, and a number of related construction-procurement systems.

In order to be eligible, projects had to be completed during 2014. Nominations were submitted by agency owners or contractors. Judging for the annual awards program was conducted by project managers, contractors and consultants who are considered experts in JOC. Previous winners were judges as well.

Job Order Contracting is a competitively bid procurement process that building and infrastructure owners use to save money by fast-tracking repair and alteration projects based on locally priced construction tasks and competitively awarded contracts.

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