Note: This editorial is adapted from the bi-monthly Challenges & Solutions report of Finley McNary Engineers Inc., Tallahasse, Fla.

If Ohio hadn't recently changed its state law to allow value engineering on highway bridge projects, the Putnam Street Bridge Replacement in Marietta would have used precast concrete segmental construction with twin-box girders. Instead, after the design underwent value engineering, the bridge is a cast-in-place, segmental structure with single-box girders.

More importantly, without value engineering, the total project would have cost an additional $500,000 and a great deal more time. While savings of time and money are obvious benefits of value engineering, the owner - Washington County, Ohio - also prefers some aspects of the value-engineered design.

"We're very pleased with the way this project is going," says County Engineer Ted Sushka, P.E., P.S.. "After we got what they had proposed, we had some issues I liked much better. For example, with twin boxes up there, we would have had a longitudinal closure joint that could have caused some maintenance problems down the road." He adds that the original design used twin-box girders to overcome traffic maintenance problems that were solved in the value engineering proposal. That left the contractor free to use single-box girders.

Value engineering is being used on more and more bridge projects across the country. In the process, many owners, contractors, and designers are finding that it often results in projects that are less expensive, faster, easier to build, or just plain better. Four primary factors contribute to this outcome:

Value engineering allows the contractor to do a better job. When the original design for a project is drawn up, the designer has no idea who the contractor will be. Once a selection is made, major changes in the design are often necessary to better suit the contractor. "Value engineering depends on the contractor's specialty," says William Domico, P.E., structures design engineer for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). "They're better in some areas. Maybe the guy just built a segmental bridge somewhere and he's got all the people and equipment set up."

When Kokosing Construction Co. of Marietta, Ohio, bid on the Putnam Street Bridge Replacement, it was already looking ahead to a value engineering proposal. "We bid the job as precast because we had to bid it as designed," says Gary Jewell, project manager. "As soon as we were awarded the job, we presented an alternate plan. Another contractor might have come in and said precast was the way to go. But we looked at a different way to do it."

Value engineering can save money and time. Why would an owner who spent money on a design firm and who put months or years into a project agree to have it changed by the contractor? Consider this: the $500,000 saved on the replacement bridge was split evenly by the contractor and the Ohio Department of Transportation. It's hard to argue with a $250,000 savings.

FDOT's Domico says, "It seems like value engineering proposals are usually major changes to the structure. It may completely change the superstructure type. The original design may have steel girders, but for some reason the contractor has a way to do the same span with concrete girders. We'll usually agree if it's structurally okay and the savings are fairly significant. Value engineering seems to have saved the department a lot of money."

Money isn't the only issue, Domico adds: "The Broadway Bridge in Daytona was a segmental bridge," he says. "The contractor increased the length of each segment so he had to lift fewer segments. We saved some money, but the issue was mainly time." Value engineering usually doesn't work if savings of money or time are not significant. The value engineering process itself requires a commitment of time and money, so the saving has to far exceed the cost of value engineering.

Value engineering can make a project better and easier to build. For the Natchez Trace and Foothills Bridges in Tennessee, value engineering facilitated earlier completion of the project by making the bridges easier to build. "The arches were originally intended to be supported with towers, but we ended up supporting them with cables," says Jerry Harder, vice president/district manager for project contractor PCL Civil Constructors, Inc. of Coral Springs, Fla. "In our minds, it was a better, simpler way to build, and the end result was actually the same."

Value engineering can be good for everyone involved. If value engineering saves money or time, or improves quality and constructability, the value is obvious. But even design firms, who sometimes balk at accepting changes to a design they worked on long and hard, can profit from value engineering. Many times the owner will keep the original designer involved as construction engineer or inspector to maintain the integrity of the project.

Kokosing Construction's Jewell says value engineering benefits design firms, as they get paid to do the concept and detailing, then hand off some of the responsibility to the contractor. "First I thought, 'Man, the original designer is not going to like this.' But they won in both directions. They got paid to do the design and they also got a consultants' fee," says Jewell.

"I like to think that people recognize that none of us is as smart as all of us," says Harder. "There is always a better way of doing things, and it doesn't matter what stage you're at. As long as people have that attitude, if someone comes along with a better idea, we should all embrace it and make it happen."