December 2023constructionbusinessreview.com8By Daniel Cole, PMP, Senior Project Manager, Aldridge Electric, Inc.PREFABRICATION, MODELLING, AND THE MODULAR FUTURE OF ELECTRICAL AND INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS IN CONSTRUCTION IN MYOPINIONWhile prefabrication has been the buzzword in construction for quite some time now, the implementation and scale of this philosophy have only more recently begun to be realized. With regards to the electrical and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) industries specifically, this area has seen explosive real growth in recent years and the future looks to capitalize even more on this trend. Where We've Been The early days of the prefabrication trend in outdoor lighting and electrical were more a model of leveraging supplier and vendor capabilities than any real, all-encompassing strategy to reimagine project delivery. Suppliers began to offer lights as a "kit" in which the wire was precut and labelled according to the project documents, saving the installer only minimal time in the field. While vendor/supplier capabilities were constrained by the complexities of varying projects and the skill and manpower necessary to truly highlight the possibilities of prefabrication, contractors themselves have, in recent years, taken the ball and run. Where We Are Having the door opened by way of wire "kitting" and prepopulated and fitted boxes for specific applications, contractors began to see and expand on the possibilities that prefabrication could deliver. Within a matter of years, prefab scopes had grown from kitting and assemblies to entire stretches of duct bank and raceway, sometimes miles long. In-house, prefabrication operations grew from a few field workers to entire warehouses and production facilities. The list of benefits grew from minor time savings to far more substantial and tangible operations that are now planned into the job from the beginning, and more recently, factored into estimating. Tunnels and bridges are modelled in three dimensions with accurate scalability, allowing teams to envision and design systems in real-time as they prove their concepts against conflicts with other trades. Lighting and ITS systems are designed, laid out, prebuilt and tested before being transported to the site. In the transportation construction industry, contractors now look to prefabrication to drag repetitive, laborious, critical tasks to the left of the project CPM. Contractors are working with designers, engineers, and AHJs to make design changes and address means and methods that better cater to leveraging the strengths of prefabrication. Strengths such as schedule management and constructive acceleration, reduction of strenuous physical activity, and the added Quality benefits of build-out
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