Estimating & Pre-Construction

The safety of the public — and our team members — is essential. Rizzo Corporation will never compromise on safety for any other project objective.
Rizzo trains its employees to higher levels than industry standards, and we hold our subcontractors to the same standard. Rizzo Corporation employs a dedicated safety staff empowered with the authority and responsibility to administer and implement our zero tolerance, project-specific safety plans. The Safety Director reports directly to the Rizzo President and CEO and has the full authority to direct Rizzo and Subcontractor staff to immediately cease all work until potentially hazardous conditions are corrected.
With safety as a key priority, Rizzo carries the following certifications:
- All employees are OSHA 10 and supervisors are OSHA 30 certified.
- OSHA Excavation
- Silica Awareness
- Lead Abatement
- CPR and First Aid
- HAZWOPER
- Metro North Rail Road safety
- ATSSA Traffic Technician
- AM 70E

The Estimating Department’s main objective is to develop and maintain long-term relationships with owners, public and private institutions, and other contractors. The goals of our Estimating Department are to provide clear and concise estimates, whether we are acting as a Construction Manager, General Contractor, Prime, or Subcontractor.
We can prepare estimates in both CSI (Construction Specifications Institute) and Uniformat Elemental systems, and our estimating team uses a variety of software specific to estimating such as On-Center, Excel, AccuBid, and EBM (Electrical Bid Management).
Pre-Construction Services The Rizzo Corporation also offers pre-construction services, which comprise the planning stage of a construction project where project budgets, scope of work, schedules, constructability, and other factors are reviewed and updated on design-specific milestones. All construction projects can benefit from pre-construction as the goal is to produce a quality set of bidding documents, minimize potential change orders, hold to a specific budget and maintain the project schedule.

Key Components
Overall Project Evaluation Understanding the scope of the work.
Site Analysis Understanding how the project will be constructed, create safety and logistics plans, especially important in occupied facilities. Safety on all of our projects is of the utmost importance.

Understanding the Approval Process Permitting, licensing, commissioning, etc.

Value Engineering Offering cost and time saving ideas.

Constructability Reviews Making sure the plans and specifications are accurate, well-coordinated, and reflect the proper scope of the work.

Cost Control We provide estimates at each design milestone to track costs and make necessary revisions should the budgets vary from the desired outcome.

Scheduling During pre-construction, we develop not only a pre-construction schedule but the actual construction schedule so that all parties involved, including subcontractors, understand the flow of the project, start and finish dates.
Procurement and Bid Phase Our estimating department establishes bidding protocols, trade packages, and bid documents, identifies long lead items, holds or attends pre-bid conferences, solicits qualified bidders, and receives and analyzes bids. Working with the respective parties, we establish a final budget based on bids received, we award subcontracts, and we turn the project over to the Rizzo Operations staff to build.

Scheduling

Rizzo’s in-house scheduling capabilities provide an easy solution for clients looking to expedite their projects, and Rizzo benefits from having added flexibility.
A construction schedule serves as a tool in guiding the project in the entirety of its lifespan. Beginning with the engineers’ and designers’ guidelines, the schedule is created with additional input from the construction management team and subcontractors, to then be reviewed and approved by the owner’s project management team to ensure satisfaction.
The schedule has multi-faceted functions such as tracking progress, integrating cost and resource loading, acceleration and recovery, as well as assisting in claims. Rizzo is dedicated to providing clients with superlative scheduling services with the latest state-of-the-art software and years of experience in all matter of construction scheduling.

General Contracting

This method allows Rizzo to participate as a consultant during the design process, improving communication between the owner and contractor. The general contractor provides guidance on the capability and cost of proposed materials and sometimes offers less expensive, quality alternatives. This method may cost the owner more for the general contractor's time, but the contractor's suggestions on the affordability and feasibility of different designs can save them significant money in materials and time.

Rizzo's General Contracting service offers clients negotiated, cost plus, guaranteed maximum price (GMP), and lump sum delivery methods. Each method offers advantages depending on the project and client preference. Our estimating and in-house scheduling departments, prior to bid or construction, provide the customer the benefit of our extensive capabilities.

Rizzo field staff, including project managers, superintendents, project engineers, and quality/safety experts, possess the general characteristics of experience, reliability, and honesty along with outstanding communication skills. We utilize the latest management tools, allowing our professionals to successfully coordinate the various trades, and assuring the project meets the goals of on-time delivery, expected quality, and committed budget.

Construction Management

Construction Management is a process that allows the client to select a company based on their qualifications which includes the company's experience and the quality of their staff. When Rizzo is chosen as a construction manager either at risk, negotiated, or as agent, we become a member of a collaborative project team, centralizing responsibility for construction under a single contract. Rizzo works with the client and design teams to make sure the design will meet the customer expectations of function and budget.
Some services that Rizzo offers during construction management are:
- Developing budgets at various stages of design and tracking the budget throughout the project
- Building a master schedule and continuously providing updates
- Providing value engineering services to analyze the design and making recommendations for cost reductions, schedule acceptability, and function
- Conducting constructability reviews to minimize issues during construction
- Providing a professional team to plan, schedule, and coordinate throughout the project

Design/Build

According to the Design Build Institute of America, the design/build construction delivery method has grown to encompass almost 50% of new construction over the past 25 years, making it one of the most influential trends in design and construction today.

It's no wonder why: providing design/build services eliminates the owner need to coordinate the design and construction teams and streamlines the design and construction process, resulting in both time and money savings.

Working as one team under the direction of an experienced project manager, Rizzo is able to control safety, quality, cost, schedule, and final delivery, effectively ensuring project success. The Rizzo approach results in high-quality projects designed and built to meet the needs of our clients — especially those who wish to receive their project at the earliest possible time.

The benefits of a Design/Build delivery method make it a great way to maximize your investment in a quality project:
Single point of responsibility — the contractor is your one source of accountability for how the end result looks, how much it costs, and how quickly it is completed.
Reducing the delivery schedule — sometimes by more than 12%. Overlapping the design and construction phases significantly shortens the schedule, and any potential problems can be discovered and solved earlier.
Better quality control & communication — because the designer, engineer, and builder are either from the same firm or are working closely, any potential problems can be discovered by both the design professional and a construction expert at the same time and solved before the project starts; this can also get rid of any ambiguity that can occur in material selection and construction specifications.