Phased Construction on Occupied Sites in the Boulder Valley

A laboratory that houses the clock behind the nation's official time cannot close for a remodel, and neither can a hospital, a school or a working business park. The NIST laboratories in Boulder, dedicated in 1954, house the NIST-F1 cesium atomic clock, and that is the kind of occupant that shapes how construction must behave next door. Phased work on an occupied site means the building keeps doing its job while we change it, and the schedule is built around that promise.

We plan phased projects by working out what the occupant cannot lose: power, water, air quality, access, quiet hours, vibration limits, security and clean routes for patients, students or staff. Those constraints turn into a phase map, a shutdown calendar and a set of physical separations that protect the people who stay. The construction method follows the constraints, not the other way around.

This is the kind of work owners bring us when stopping operations is not an option: healthcare systems adding capacity to a live campus, institutions improving buildings during the school year, and property owners updating a center while tenants keep trading.

The phase map and the shutdown calendar

We start with a site walk beside the people who run the building. Facilities staff know which valve feeds which wing, which corridor carries the most traffic and which room has equipment that must not be moved. We write all that into a phasing plan with named areas, start and end dates and the conditions that must be true before each phase begins. The plan goes to the owner and the occupants for review before any work starts.

Utility shutdowns are scheduled in a calendar that the operations team approves. Each one has a written procedure, a time window, a backup plan and a named person who can say stop. We do the prep work, such as pre-fabricating tie-ins and staging materials, in advance so the actual interruption is short. A shutdown that finishes early is the best outcome, and a plan that makes it possible is part of the job.

Protecting people who did not sign up for a construction site

Dust, noise, vibration and traffic are controlled with physical barriers, negative air where the use calls for it, protected routes and monitoring. In clinical areas, an infection control risk assessment sets the barrier type and the cleaning protocol, and we follow it exactly. Around labs, we ask what vibration or electrical noise the equipment can tolerate and verify our methods against it, before demolition or drilling begins.

Construction access is separate from the public route. Workers use designated doors, materials move on set paths and times, and the site is fenced where the public can reach it. Louisville is home to two hospitals, AdventHealth Avista and Centennial Peaks Hospital, and in Louisville we treat any work near a care facility as a patient-safety project first and a construction project second.

Working around the occupant's calendar

Campuses have academic calendars, hospitals have surge seasons, and businesses have quarter-end deadlines. We build the schedule around those dates. At CU Boulder, the main campus covers 786 acres, East Campus lies about a quarter mile away with athletic fields and research buildings, and Williams Village is about 1.5 miles from the main campus, so work on that scale spreads across several areas that each have their own rhythm. A project near the campus area has to fit all of them.

Noisy and disruptive tasks go to nights, weekends and breaks when the owner allows it, and quiet tasks fill the occupied hours. That arrangement costs more per hour and less overall when it avoids a standoff with the occupants. We plan overtime in the base price, so the owner does not meet it later as a surprise.

Occupied buildings we work in

Occupied work is common in school buildings, medical and office buildings, retail centers and research space. Each has its own rules: schools need separation from students, medical buildings need infection control and life-safety continuity, retail needs open entrances, and research space needs clean, quiet and stable conditions.

Employers in the metro include the University of Colorado Boulder, Ball Corporation, Boulder Valley School District and Boulder Community Health according to the city's 2022 financial report, and organizations of that kind rarely have a free building. We ask each owner what an interruption costs, because that number determines how much money it is worth spending on phasing.

What to decide before the first phase

Decide the sequence of areas, who approves each shutdown, how the occupants will be informed and what happens if the schedule slips. Decide whether the project is a renovation or adaptive reuse job that can be done floor by floor, or whether it needs a temporary move for some occupants. Phasing can be the largest cost in the project, so decisions made early save the most.

We recommend a short weekly meeting with the building's operations lead, a published two-week lookahead and a single point of contact for complaints. Most disputes on occupied sites start with a surprise: a noisy task nobody mentioned or a closed door nobody expected. Good communication removes most of them.

Across campuses, business parks and downtown buildings

We take on phased work across the Boulder Valley, from research buildings near the federal labs to older commercial buildings in town centers. Where a project combines construction with selective demolition, we plan the debris path, the dust control and the structural shoring as part of the phase map.

For research and laboratory owners, we also check the work against the federal research lab area conditions, such as controlled access and equipment sensitivity, before pricing.

Tell us what cannot stop

Describe the building, the people in it and the operations that must continue, and we will map phases, shutdowns and protection measures with a schedule you can share.

Questions Owners Ask

How much does phasing add to the cost?

It varies with the occupant. Extra mobilizations, night and weekend premiums, temporary barriers and longer durations all add cost. We price those items separately so an owner can see what each protection costs and decide which to keep. A clear phase plan usually costs less than ad hoc disruption.

How do you handle utility shutdowns?

Each shutdown is scheduled in a calendar approved by the operations team, with a written procedure, a time window and a fallback. We prepare the work in advance so the interruption is as short as possible, and we keep a person on site with the authority to stop and restore service.

What is done about dust and noise?

We use sealed barriers, negative air where needed, walk-off mats, protected routes and scheduled quiet hours. In clinical and lab areas, the barrier type and cleaning protocol follow the risk assessment. We monitor dust and noise and adjust when the readings or the occupants tell us something is wrong.

Can construction happen while students or patients are present?

Yes, with separation and a plan approved by the owner and the responsible authority. Work areas are physically isolated, routes are separate and the schedule respects the calendar. For the most sensitive spaces, we shift work to breaks or off hours.

Who communicates with the occupants?

We provide a two-week lookahead and a single point of contact, and the owner's representative decides how to inform occupants. Clear notice of noisy work, closures and shutdowns prevents most of the complaints on occupied projects.

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