‘Aim Small, Miss Small’
Carlie Stalnecker, project engineer at RLTurner and Ball State University student, and her team traveled to Chicago and won the 2022 Associated Schools of Construction Concrete Competition.
The six-member squad from BSU’s Construction Management Program, dubbed “Cardinal Concrete,” was tasked with preparing a project plan—estimate, schedule, project approach and more—for two floors of an apartment building in downtown Cincinnati.
“They gave us the drawings at 7 a.m., and we had until midnight to submit our estimate,” Carlie said. “We set up our war room in our hotel room and spent the entire day working on it.”
The team’s diligence paid off. Since the competition was based on an actual project that was already finished, the judges knew the job cost $613,000. “We put together a schedule and an estimate of $669,000,” Carlie said. “Essentially, our proposal explained everything we’d do for the project if they hired us as the subcontractor.”
Cardinal Concrete winning the top prize came as no surprise to Wayne Fishburn, RLTurner estimator, who helped the team train for the competition. The team spent a day at RLTurner’s headquarters to learn about our company’s “aim small, miss small” approach.
We base all our bids on real-world numbers rather than square-foot estimates. We also bid on projects that fall into our realm of expertise as opposed to throwing numbers at everything. This approach, along with our commitment to quality and safety, helps maintain our reputation as an industry leader and keeps our work right on target.
Congratulations to each member of Cardinal Concrete!
- Carlie Stalnecker, superintendent
- Autumn Larkins, quality control
- Youssef Mahfouz, project manager
- Nick Taylor, safety manager
- Jacy Weatherly, schedule manager
- Darryn Kuhl, estimator
- Natalie Sanchez, professor
- Sherif Attallah, professor
