Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company Optimizes Sequencing with ALICE

The Challenge

HDCC turned to ALICE for a mid-rise affordable senior housing project in downtown Honolulu named “Kōkua.” Built on a 12,591-square-foot former parking lot, this $88 million project will be 20 floors high with a total of 224 housing units.

In Hawaiian, Kōkua means “to assist those in need,” which is a strong and beloved value in a culture that places a high value on “Ohana,” or “family,” and social interdependence. Kōkua also denotes a spirit of generosity and compassion.

One of the major challenges for HDCC was that the Kōkua construction site was close to adjacent buildings, leaving HDCC with little room to maneuver its equipment and manage site logistics. What’s more, the front of the building was on a one-way street, one on which Honolulu had imposed a variety of construction restrictions to avoid impeding traffic. For HDCC, determining the optimal sequence to install the Kōkua facade given these conditions was extremely difficult.

The Solution

HDCC used ALICE to account for the project's numerous constraints. The team then ran thousands of different scenarios to determine the optimal sequence in which to build the Kōkua facade.

"When we do a traditional schedule, we really only do one scenario. ALICE gives us the ability to explore other options that we couldn't possibly go through and see if there's a better way to build the project."

Paul Silen VP Commercial Division

The Results

Using ALICE, HDCC has solved a complex problem: the ideal sequence in which to build the Kōkua facade. The team ran various what-if scenarios on ALICE to explore numerous potential ways to build the facade. “ALICE helped us in the planning of the facade where we looked at different ways of how we're going to attack and put up the facade in a 20-story building that's tight with the adjacent buildings,” said Wes Asao, Senior Project Manager on Kōkua. ALICE not only helped the team optimize sequencing, but also to visualize what the plan would look like with a 5D model.

Additionally, with the use of ALICE’s recipes, the team digitized its means and methods of various construction processes that can now be easily applied to other projects.

“ALICE is one of the key tools that we use as a company. I've been really impressed with the ALICE team, of their knowledge of the construction industry and of scheduling. The team has been very helpful as we've been implementing ALICE throughout the company,” said Gerry Majkut, President of HDCC.