Special Projects Team

Our Special Projects Team (SPT) is a new service stream for Code Enforcement customers. SPT focuses exclusively on clients who use Building Information Modeling (BIM). BIM is a technology that replaces traditional two-dimensional plans and drawings with 3-D computer models. Owners and designers use this model to simulate construction and manage building maintenance.

Sections of N.C. Administrative Code specifically designed to support BIM.

SPT is an Integrated Project Delivery concept, in which Code Enforcement staff are able to work more efficiently with the owner's project team (design professionals, contractors and subcontractors). SPT members are assigned to a project at the start, and follow it through to completion, with no differentiation between plan review and inspections. The same code officials work on the project from start to finish.

This different team and service approach has the effect of initiating Code Enforcement involvements in projects far earlier than in projects in our more traditional services streams. By eliminating dividing lines and handoffs between plan review and inspections, SPT is designed to speed up the permitting and inspections process.

The Special Projects Team uses the highest technology in design and construction, like BIM, to provide plan review and permitting services. Consequently, projects will not follow the typical design-bid-build (D-B-B) process format.

Customers who wish to use the BIM/IPD review and permitting process will need to contact SPT Manager Howard Grindstaff (office: ​980-314-3171)​. The Special Projects Team will determine whether a project qualifies for the SPT review and permitting process. Criteria for eligibility include:

• ​A General Contractor will be in place, as part of the project team.

• There needs to be an agreement or contract between the owner, and the owner's team (Architects, Engineers, General Contractors, etc.,) that allows for integrated project delivery (IPD).

• The owner's team will be willing to work using a BIM platform to produce construction documents.

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There may be instances that a project does not meet all of the aforementioned criteria. It is important for the client to contact the Special Projects Team with project specific information. Based on the project information, the SPT will determine if a project can still qualify for the SPT plan review and permitting service.

Mecklenburg County is proud to have been one of the code enforcement authorities to pioneer a BIM-IPD customer service stream in the United States. Of course, new technology creates new questions about seal use. Together, with Carolinas HealthCare System, Mecklenburg County conducted a pilot program on the use of A/E seals in BIM-IPD. This program eventually resulted in the N.C. Board of Architecture and N.C. Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors issuing guidelines for seal use in BIM-IPD projects.

Those guidelines, and documentation on the pilot program, are included here, for the convenience of design professionals working on BIM-IPD projects:

• ​​N.C. Board of Architecture Position Statement on Professional Seals on BIM-IPD Projects
   
• N.C. Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors Project Guidelines for Signing and Sealing BIM-IPD Projects​
   
• Pilot Program Proposal for Use of Design Professional Seals in BIM-IPD Projects
  • 4/2/2013 Interim Report to the N.C. Arch & PE Licensing Boards
     
  • ​​10/27/2015 Interim Report to the N.C. Arch B​oard​​

Learn More About SPT

• Special Events
    
• SPT- IPD Process Chart
   
• SPT BIM - IPD documents Submittal Process
   
•  BIM-IPD in North Carolina Administrative Code
   
• SPT Scoping Letter