As of Feb. 15, 2020:

Next available engineering START date, standard speed:  April 13, 2020

Next available engineering START date, RUSH speed: March 30, 2020

Next available State Plan Review date: roughly, sometime in May (see comments below)

There are a lot of things changing within the Wisconsin commercial building submittal process this spring.  A legislative bill aimed at reducing wait times for the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) plan review and approval of commercial buildings has been introduced in Madison.  DSPS also is in the process of transitioning to a new system of for project scheduling, management and invoicing known as eSLA .

Depending on the timing of the implementation of eSLA and the success of the legislation, the scope of building plan reviews could change significantly this year and in ways maybe not predictable at this point.

At this time, we are requesting plan review appointments for our projects as normal and then being told that the plans may be reviewed BEFORE the scheduled plan appointment date, but that they will not consider rescheduling the initial plan review appointments to an earlier date until the plans are submitted.  As far as I know, they (DSPS) have eliminated the Priority Plan Review option for double fees and a 10 day turnaround, but they are trying to reduce the time wasted on moving projects around, duplicate plan review requests, and trying to reduce the lead time for ALL projects by prioritizing plan reviewer’s efficiency in making sure they have “complete” plan submittals to work on each day instead of looking at partially completed submittals that barely get turned in on time.

Internally, project work load has picked up SIGNIFICANTLY this 2020 calendar year.  I have posted availability dates above and will try to keep these dates updated as we get into the spring season, as well as correct or add to the DSPS updates as I receive them.