SEI Finishes Athens, Georgia, Costco Warehouse.

SEI Finishes Athens, Georgia,
Costco Warehouse.

There’s no such thing as a routine project. But SEI strives to make them feel routine, no matter what challenges we face.

Take our recently finished the 154,833 sf Costco Warehouse in Athens, Georgia. Byron Hood, Project Manager, and his team had to contend with a widespread cement shortage. For any project manager, that would pose a significant obstacle.

Then again, Byron Hood isn’t just any project manager.

“The cement shortage in the Southeast was limiting our ability to get concrete that was both available and in the right quantity,” offers Byron. “And yet we had a deadline to meet.”

So how did Byron and site superintendent Tim Lowery solve the problem?

“Rather than wait to pour the entire foundation at once, we realized that other projects would, on occasion cancel concrete pours. So we always kept a section of the foundation ready for that contingency. That way, when the concrete supplier received a cancellation they knew we would take the cancelled order off their hands.”

The other way Byron and his team kept the project moving? They erected the structure first, then poured the interior slab.

“Normally, we like pouring the interior slabs first before putting up the building,” Hood added. “But we didn’t have the time to wait, especially since nobody could commit to delivering a large concrete pour until months into the project. So while we normally have six concrete pours, we needed to do the job with ten this time—one section at a time.”

The result? Despite the materials shortage, we delivered the finished building on time.

“We got lemons and made lemonade out of it,” jokes Byron. A pretty good way to describe SEI’s performance whenever we’re feeling the squeeze.