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MESSAGE
FROM CEA’S CEO AND REGISTRAR
Early Planning Leads to Success
C
ONGRATULATIONS TO THE
winning firms and individuals in
this year’s Showcase Awards program.
Today we celebrate the success of
our industry over the past year. We
highlight specific projects and careers
that demonstrate the commitment
of individuals, project teams, owners
and consultants to deliver innovative
solutions in the planning, design
and construction of this province’s
infrastructure. This program is the
culmination of work that started many
months ago through the planning
and actions of CEA staff and industry
participants. The success depends upon
their early work. It required event
marketing; the industry’s preparation
and submission of projects to be
reviewed; careful evaluation by judges;
planning of facilities, meals and speakers;
articles to be written for this magazine;
ticket sales, photography and planning
for follow-up publicity.
Similarly, to an even greater extent,
most of the projects in this year’s awards
program started years ago. They started
with an identified need by owners,
communities and public sector entities
to build something new or maintain
existing infrastructure. They each started
with a plan, a scope of project, a budget
and a schedule. Within each of those
steps, expectations were identified,
re-evaluated and perhaps modified. As
the projects moved from planning and
design and into construction, there were
undoubtedly unforeseen issues that
arose, whether they were site conditions,
weather impacts, supply of materials
or other variables that created the need
for management of the changes. From
beginning to end, successful projects
require close communication and
collaboration between project owners
and their engineering consultants.
Successful outcomes are the destination
of a path that started with early work and planning.
Over the past year in CEA, we have heard about many
of the challenges being faced within our industry’s
client groups. Project outcomes in relation to budgets
and schedules often seem uncertain for owners due to
the continuing uncertainties around us — inflation,
material and labour shortages, and government funding,
to name a few. Risk aversion by owners through their
procurement and project delivery processes seems more
heightened now than ever before. The owners’ concerns
are shared by our industry. How can we best identify,
assess, mitigate or respond to these uncertainties to
achieve better outcomes?
The answer — start early. Engaging consulting
engineers early and building strong collaborative
relationships between engineers and owners throughout
the process, from planning concepts to completion of
construction, pays dividends. Early definition of the
project scope and risks allows owners and consultants to
establish clear budgets and schedules to set projects on
the best path toward expected outcomes. Engineering
design typically only costs about one to two per cent of
project lifecycle costs and is a small investment which
can have substantial impact on the cost of constructing
and maintaining infrastructure. Small investments
made early in the project planning and design stages
establish the foundation for addressing uncertainties to
achieve success.
Our association is proud to showcase the wide
variety of projects in the 2025 program. These projects
demonstrate the success of innovative teams working
through project challenges from beginning to end.
Thank you to everyone who submitted projects, to our
judges on making the difficult decisions to select the
winners and to our member firms who continue to
support CEA and this awards program.
KEN KOZAKEWICH, MBA, P.ENG.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
AND REGISTRAR
CONSULTING ENGINEERS OF ALBERTA
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