How 4M Enables LAN to Plan Faster and Scope Projects More Accurately

Customer Profile 

Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN) is a full-service civil engineering firm. Founded in 1935 in Houston, they’ve grown from a small local firm to a national leader in the heavy civil infrastructure engineering industry. Among other initiatives, LAN is currently working on infrastructure projects with TXDOT across Texas. 

Background 

LAN wants to accelerate growth by doubling company revenue growth in the next five years through new business, headcount, and expanded geography. They’re also looking to improve efficiency and optimize win rates by streamlining pursuits and early project planning. And they want to leverage new technology to position themselves as an innovative firm solving complex issues by thinking outside the box. 

LAN turned to 4M for instant access to the reliable utility data they need to achieve these ambitious business goals. 

Key Results 

• Enhanced Confidence. In design and construction, the biggest risk is making decisions on uncertain information. With 4M, LAN feels confident in its decisions thanks to comprehensive, reliable utility data—eliminating guesswork and mitigating risk from the start.
• Improved Data Validation. 4M helps LAN cross-reference and validate data from various sources in one platform, providing a more complete view and accurate understanding of the project area.
• Streamlined Workflow. 4M integrates seamlessly into existing workflows, providing additional data points that enhance the overall quality of deliverables. 
• Client Trust and Transparency. 4M’s Utility AI Platform delivers data transparency, enabling LAN to justify its scope of work and earn client trust with confidence.
• Reduction in Project Risks. Having more data early on significantly reduces the risks involved in project design and execution.

Straight from the Source 

Hear what Nick Krajewski, P.E., Project Manager SUE & Utility Coordination at LAN, had to say about his experience with 4M.

Challenge: Unknown Utility Risks

Any time they begin a construction or infrastructure project, LAN engineers know there’s a risk that a critical utility could be hit each time they dig into the earth because of incomplete utility data. 

The traditional methods for utility research are fragmented, incomplete, and time-consuming to get their hands on, which makes finding those risks ahead of time difficult. And those underground unknown utilities can cause major issues, whether it’s hitting a water pipe that serves the community or something more dangerous. 

“God forbid you miss a pipeline, someone strikes that and you get an explosion or something like that,” explains Nick Krajewski, Project Manager SUE & UC at LAN. “That might sound dramatic, but there's people's lives out there and there's a lot of risk in that, and I couldn't live if I knew someone got hurt because I couldn't find a utility on a project.”

And those unknown utilities also lead to time and cost overruns on projects that cut into budgets and delay completion. 

“If you hit a storm sewer line in the middle of construction,” Krajewski says, “the construction team's going to stop and they're going to say, ‘Okay, we need to figure this out.’ If that requires a redesign, you're talking weeks, and the potential of the client saying you have to front this and you have to pay for this.”

Those delays and overruns from unreliable utility data expose firms to reputational risks. They could result in liability claims, contract disputes, and diminished client trust, all of which can harm the firm’s reputation and long-term growth. 

Even where good utility data exists, it might take too long to source all of it before a scoping request or proposal is due. All of this uncertainty exposes both LAN and their clients, like TXDOT, to unknown risks. 

Solution: Utility AI Mapping 

When Krajewski first heard about 4M’s Utility AI Platform, he was intrigued and skeptical since he’d never experienced a solution like this. The promise of comprehensive utility data at his fingertips seemed too good to be true. 4M equips infrastructure teams with instant access to reliable utility data and intelligent insights—all in one platform and designed to fit any workflow.

“When you throw the word AI in, that's a buzzword over the past couple of years,” Krajewski says. “I was really curious if this was going to be anything more helpful than the traditional methods.”

Once he saw 4M’s capabilities in a demo, though, he was ready to try it out right away. LAN has 4,500 employees providing civil engineering services, from project planning and kickoffs to bidding and beyond. So the potential ROI was significant enough to put 4M to the test — a test it passed with flying colors. 

“It's immediately become a staple in the workflow,” Krajewski says. The first step of any project at LAN now is putting it into 4M. “We're just collecting a list of the possible players on the project, and 4M does that instantaneously and gives us a good list right off the bat.” 

Using 4M’s Foundation Utility Data allows Krajewski and his team to easily access instant, detailed utility information to plan faster and bid more accurately. Previously, they didn’t want to put in excessive effort to scope out projects that might not be a good fit or if they didn’t have enough time to tackle it all. 

Now they can get reliable information on project risks upfront, even when they get a request for scope within one week. “More information is better than less information,” notes Krajewski. “And the quicker and more efficiently we can get that information, the more money we're making.” 

Their scoping efforts are now more transparent to their clients as well with 4M’s data. “I've actually had projects where the client came back on my scope and said it was too high and I actually showed them, ‘Hey, this is information I got from 4M, this is why I scoped it,’ and I just spelled it out for them,” Krajewski says. “And they said okay, thanks for showing us, we'll go with your original scope.”

After all, clients don’t just want the lowest bids. They would prefer more accuracy in risks, costs, and timelines to have a clearer picture of why the costs are what they are. 4M gives LAN the instant, reliable utility data it needs to create clear, comprehensive, and accurate bids. 

4M Analytics gives them the confidence to proceed on a project without always worrying about what was missed, the unknown risks, etc. — they can just get to work with confidence. 

Of course, 4M doesn’t replace the human-driven due diligence needed to bid on and begin a project. But it offers the fastest and most reliable starting point for scoping out the risks ahead of time. 

“You want to know at least a high-level idea instantaneously of what you're looking at: this is an excellent tool for that,” says Krajewski. “There's nothing out there that's going to be like that. But at the same time, just knowing it doesn't replace what you normally do. You still have your own due diligence that you're supposed to do.”

An unexpected bonus of using 4M is that he can sometimes even get specific insights on above-ground utility labels from the excellent viewing capabilities of 4M’s Utility Object Detection and street view, which was previously difficult to do with Google Earth. 

“A lot of times, pedestals or different types of utility infrastructures will have labels on it and on Google Earth you can't read that,” Krajewski says. “But sometimes I get lucky on 4M — I can zoom in and actually read what that says on the object. That's just another piece of information that I'm getting from the office that can help me paint the picture before I go out there to the field.” 

With this comprehensive picture of a project's potential utility risks, Krajewski and his team can enter the scoping and bid processes faster with reliable data behind them, confidence in their estimates and timelines, and safety in their crews. 

Looking Ahead 

As LAN continues to use 4M’s Foundation Utility Data, they’re seeing increased benefits and looking forward to powerful new features coming soon as well. It’s not only helping them achieve their growth targets, but increasing their confidence in their bids and projects as well. 

“If you could turn in a project and you feel good about it and you're not worried about it going to construction and worrying what might happen,” says Krajewski, “you could live your life anxiety-free that your projects are going to get done and they're going to go without a hitch, without any safety concerns, without any utility strikes. You've done all you could and you've gotten the best information that you can find.”

Krajewski looks forward to upcoming innovations and add-ons from 4M. “I mean, this is just the beginning,” he says. “It's crazy that we haven't even been with you guys for a year and there's always updates, there's more coming. That makes it exciting.”