Timber Wolf Excavating (TWX) | New Corporate Headquarters
The new TWX corporate headquarters is an 8,344 SF office building with design features highlighting the concrete construction capabilities of TWX. Distinguished by 12’ stamped concrete walls, concrete benches, decorative sidewalks, and ample natural lighting throughout, this office is a complete expression of this civil/concrete contractor.
Timber Wolf Excavating (TWX) is an Oklahoma Civil/Concrete contractor, as such, they wanted to show off their capabilities in the design of this new office. The building has 12” thick stamped interior concrete slab and interior walls, intricate exterior concrete benches, complex exterior flatwork and 1,000 LF of exterior concrete fencing that is poured in place by TWX to enclose their equipment yard. In addition to the decorative concrete structural system, the interior finishes and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems are all of the highest quality, as an example, this project has a chiller system on the roof and an interior boiler system that provides the heating and cooling for the project. The project is also built on a reclaimed landfill that required drilled piers and grade beams to support the building. Another element to this project was TWX’s interest and support of LDKerns Contractors safety program. Not only did this project have 0 doctor cases and 0 recordable incidences, but it also served as the “film studio” for LDKerns new employee and subcontractors safety orientation video. LDKerns superintendent, and many of the workers on the site were asked to participate in the new video. This new safety video is yet another tool LDKerns utilizes to support our safety program. Another interesting fact about this project is that LDKerns performed our work as Construction Manager at Risk, this allowed TWX access to all the costs involved and creates a very positive working relationship.
The largest challenge for this project was the post pandemic labor and material cost impacts affecting all contractors. LDKerns was able to mitigate the labor issues associated with the pandemic via our Covid Emergency Action Plan. This plan included the education of EVERY person on all projects. After providing the Covid Emergency Plan training, we provided a hard hat sticker for the individual so it was easy to identify if a new person was on our projects and they could be trained also. The heart of the program was education, LDKerns informed everyone that if they experienced any symptoms, please stay home, and notify our management staff. LDKerns would then schedule and pay for the individual to have testing done. If the individual tested positive, we made sure that the individual was paid to stay home and recover. By ensuring individuals were not concerned with collecting their paycheck, we did not have to shut down this project, or any other throughout the pandemic. In addition to the Covid Emergency Action Plan, LDKerns also instituted a thorough daily clean/disinfection of our jobsite via atomizing sprayer that would dispense disinfectant on all surfaces on a project. Hand sanitizing stations were also provided throughout our jobsites to aid in this effort.
Other Covid challenges to overcome were material cost increases. To identify these issues early, LDKerns expedited all submittals in a 30-day process. LDKerns also negotiated with our client (TWX) to allow for the purchase of materials immediately after approved submittals and both efforts combined allowed LDKerns the ability to lock down our purchases very quickly from the time the subcontractors bid the project and eliminated any unexpected cost increase.
When it was time to choose a builder to work alongside in developing our plans and vision for our future office, LDKerns was a natural fit. Throughout the duration of the project the LDKerns team did an excellent job of communicating, planning, and executing, with great commitment to the success of the finished project.
– Tyler Barlow, Controller
