After losing $41,000 due to outdated plan sheets, Ed Bell Construction turned to HCSS to keep their field updated with real-time data.
Ed Bell Construction is a well-known name in Texas for heavy civil construction. From massive paving projects to bridge structures and complex earthwork, their crews are constantly moving, and the projects are always complex. Coordinating across multiple jobsites with tight deadlines and tight budgets required more than heavy machinery and a ‘can-do’ attitude; they needed smarter communication from the office to the field.
Outdated Information Led to Costly Rework
Before going digital, project updates moved slowly, and they weren’t always accurate. Crews in the field worked from printed plan sets that weren’t always the most current. Changes were either missed or delayed in getting to the right hands. The tipping point came during a major highway project where Ed Bell’s team was laying down traffic barriers to safely reroute vehicles. As the work progressed, the project owners made updates to the barrier alignment. Those changes made it to the office — but not to the field.
By the time the error was discovered, the crew had already installed three miles of concrete traffic barrier. One error. It was six feet off from the correct position. It was a costly mistake, racking up $41,000 in rework to fix the misalignment. Not to mention the time lost and the ripple effect it had on the rest of the schedule.
That’s when the team realized: paper wasn’t just old-school — it was a liability.
"When an owner sends a revised plan sheet, it's pushed out to the field within minutes. Everybody associated with the project has the correct data."
- Phillippe Falkner, Safety Director
The Shift to HeavyJob & Real-Time Data
Looking for a better way to sync the field and office, Ed Bell Construction adopted HCSS Plans and HeavyJob. These tools helped them move everything—plans, documentation, time cards, and job notes—onto a unified platform. Now, foremen carry iPads instead of plastic tubs filled with blueprints.
They can mark up plans, share updates instantly, and ensure everyone is working from the latest version—no more guesswork, no more costly rework. HeavyJob handles the time and production side. Crew leads enter hours directly into the system, and crew members can clock in and out using an app. All of this data flows straight to the office in real time, giving project managers an up-to-the-minute view of job performance, labor costs, and productivity.
The Results: No More Rework, Faster Decisions
Since going digital, Ed Bell hasn’t had a single rework incident tied to plan miscommunication. That alone has saved them thousands. Field leaders save time, project managers make faster decisions, and the entire operation runs more smoothly — especially on jobs with tight turnarounds. As one manager put it, “Every aspect of a job is now run using HCSS, from tracking budgets to managing safety. What used to take hours, we now do in minutes on an iPad.”
The Bottom Line
That $41,000 mistake could’ve repeated itself, but it didn’t. Ed Bell Construction turned a painful lesson into a smart pivot, investing in tools that gave them control, clarity, and confidence in every phase of the project.
With HCSS Plans and HeavyJob, they’ve eliminated the paper shuffle, improved team communication, and built a field-to-office connection that actually works.
