Lake County, Ill. Receives National Honor for Innovative Construction Procurement

MAULDIN, S.C., July 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A paradigm shift to a new construction procurement system led to Lake County, Ill., receiving a 2012 Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties. County officials were honored at the association's annual convention July 15, 2012, in Pittsburgh, Penn.

Lake County administrators implemented Gordian's JOC Solution™, three years ago to reduce a backlog of facility maintenance and infrastructure projects. The results for county administrators and taxpayers were more completed projects, a sustained focus on using local contractors and greater efficiency and flexibility.

Gordian's JOC Solution is a competitively bid Job Order Contracting construction-procurement process. Building and infrastructure owners use the system to quickly accomplish a large number of repair, alteration and new-construction projects based on a customized, locally-priced Construction Task Catalog® and competitively awarded contracts with "on-call" contractors.

Lake County chose Job Order Contracting in 2009 in order to shorten the timeline for small and straightforward construction and rehabilitation projects. Since May 2009, the county has completed more than 90 of them, ranging from a $2,700 seating-replacement job at a courthouse to a $350,000 storm sewer system installation at a juvenile-detention facility.

"Our mission is to ensure the use of local Lake County and Illinois-based contractors, while providing the best value for our taxpayers," said Gary Gordon, Lake County Director of Finance and Administration. "This program has tremendously accomplished our goals."

The Gordian Group has an established history of helping a variety of agencies meet their small and local business-participation goals and delivering significant long-term cost savings. The county's results since 2009 show $4 million was paid to subcontractors, with 88% of those funds remaining in Illinois and 70% in Lake County.

"Congratulations to Lake County for this prestigious award," said Robert Coffey, President and CEO of The Gordian Group. "The Gordian Group is proud to have helped the county tailor a solution that allowed it to complete a backlog of projects while maintaining a focus on local jobs and strong economic value."

According to county administrators, Job Order Contracting has improved the efficiency of construction or maintenance projects because it allows them to design and develop new projects with greater certainty for a project's scope and cost. Since the contractor has already been identified and thousands of individual construction tasks have already been priced, it is easier to create a firm budget very early in the process.

From the first meeting between a county project manager and the contractor to establish a project's scope, Gordian's JOC Solution keeps the owner in charge while fast-tracking projects. Once the contractor uploads project details into the system's software, Lake County officials can review them and make modifications to tasks or quantities. A project manager can also request additional information from the contractor.

In addition, Gordian's JOC Solution can be used to supplement construction tasks on projects where traditional bid-type contracts have already been used but the work is unfinished.

Each year, more than $1.5 billion in repair and renovation work is procured nationally using the Gordian Group's Job Order Contracting solutions, saving owners not only millions of dollars, but also countless hours in procurement and project management time.

About The Gordian Group 
The Gordian Group (www.TheGordianGroup.com) created Job Order Contracting and a number of related construction-procurement systems, including ezIQC®. Gordian combines industry leading expertise and technology with the world's largest, locally-priced construction task database for rapid deployment and long-term cost savings in the repair, maintenance and construction of buildings and infrastructure.

SOURCE The Gordian Group