FORT WAYNE, IND. ¯ Shambaugh & Son has received a 2003 national design-build award from the Design-Build Institute of America. The mechanical contractor was cited for its $9.2 million renovation of a 120,000-sq.-ft. ice cream processing facility in the Phoenix for Safeway, which was named the best project in the industrial sector for less than $25 million by DBIA.

Shambaugh is a subsidiary of the EMCOR Group of companies.

“This complex project for Safeway required innovation, quality craftsmanship and ingenuity in order to complete engineering and construction for the overhaul of a large automated production facility in a little over six months,” said CEO Mark P. Shambaugh.

The Safeway plant, which features sophisticated technology in process controls and automation, needed to be ready to meet an expected springtime surge in product demand. Working with Safeway’s team, Shambaugh developed a comprehensive plan to create a facility that could meet the demanding production and quality standards as well as the budget set by Safeway, said Alan Burrows, Safeway project manager.

“Shambaugh provided excellent value for the work which was performed,” he said. “Quality of workmanship was consistently high. The level of teamwork and cooperation has been excellent.”

Shambaugh’s agreement with Safeway was based on a design-build guaranteed maximum price contract that provided the owner with performance guarantees for cost and schedule as well as the ice cream process throughput.

“We basically guaranteed Safeway that the project would be completed on-time and within budget,” noted Jeff Johns, vice president/design-build for Shambaugh and project executive on the Safeway project. “We also provided quality assurances for engineering, construction and the production process that would have resulted in liquidated damages had we failed to deliver.”

Shambaugh’s implementation strategy was crucial to the successful completion of the project, Johns added.

“To ensure the project was profitable for the owner and completed within six months, our engineering team had to start the design process immediately and worked a few days ahead of the construction team on design to keep the project moving,” he explained. “While planning, designing and working with the construction team, we had to strategize and integrate client changes without slowing down the construction.”