Some projects unfold on a predictable schedule. Others arrive with the kind of deadline that makes everyone sweat a bit: “We need to break ground in six months. Ready?”
That was the situation LHB stepped into recently on a major industrial expansion project at a mill site in Duluth. Our client, a global manufacturer investing in new production capacity, needed dirt moving within six months of hiring a design team. (LHB served as the local partner on the project, handling site design and civil infrastructure alongside an international architecture firm and a design-build contractor.)
Quick timelines mean everyone has to be in alignment. We had to collaborate and communicate efficiently and effectively with clients, regulators, communities, and stakeholders. We had to build trust. And we had to find a way to compress schedules without compromising quality
In just under six months, we were ready to break ground.
How do we do it? Three lessons from this project offer insights, and each one speaks directly to our partnership approach with clients and communities.
Lesson 1: Map constraints immediately and commit early to foundational decisions
Before layouts advanced for the expansion in Duluth, our team mapped every fixed constraint on the site, including a 150-foot creek setback and the surrounding hydrologic boundaries. With uncertain subsurface conditions across the site, a decision was made early to pile-support every new building.
That transformed unpredictable soils into a known structural system—a choice that eliminated redesign later in the schedule. Stormwater infrastructure was sized at the same stage, protecting the adjacent creek while letting site circulation and building footprints move forward without rework.
This is the instinct LHB brings to any fast-paced project: identify challenges early on and commit to a framework solution as much as possible. We outline the pros and cons of each strategy—a service that allows clients to move quickly, provided they can commit to an approach.
Lesson 2: Treat regulators as partners, not checkpoints
Because LHB has offices in Duluth and we already know the decision-makers in the local regulatory community, our team was able to arrange meetings with city staff early, rather than presenting a finished project design for a single up-or-down review. Over three to five months, our team met informally with the city several times, walking through concepts and draft materials in manageable pieces rather than asking for approval of a finished product all at once. The city’s special-use-permit timeline was built directly into the project schedule from the outset, and by the time formal submission came, city staff had effectively already reviewed the design. There were no surprises at the deadline for either side.
For LHB, this approach reflects a broader belief that trust with regulators and reviewing agencies compounds over time. A relationship built well on one project tends to make the next project with the same city or a new client move more smoothly. Of course, if you damage that trust, the opposite holds true.
Lesson 3: Design for the end state, but release what you know now
From Day One, our team designed the project with the finished outcome in mind, but we didn’t wait for every detail to be resolved before releasing work. An early civil site package went out within four months of the project’s start, letting construction crews begin fieldwork before winter while the broader design continued. A second package followed roughly three months later.
That approach meant construction started well ahead of full design completion, without sacrificing coordination between the pieces still being finalized.
This is the balance LHB tries to strike on every schedule-driven project: hold the whole picture in view, but don’t let the pursuit of a perfect and complete package become the enemy of a timely one.
For municipalities and organizations facing their own fixed deadlines, the throughline across all three lessons is the same. Fast doesn’t have to mean reckless, and collaborative doesn’t have to mean slow. To expedite progress, we found ways to move faster and earlier, brought reviewers into the process rather than keep them in the dark, and released decisions in stages so our partners could put their talents into action sooner. When the clock is running, that’s the kind of partner LHB can be. ∎
To learn more about our capabilities in energy and industry, contact LHB civil engineering manager Robert Lisi.
