Dr. Maryam Mirhadi, PMP, PSP
This article is part of a technical article, entitled Planning and scheduling requirements of subway station rehabilitation/renovation projects, that Adroit’s competent professionals have authored and presented in AACE International’s 2016 Annual Meeting in Toronto.
To identify the major challenges in time management of subway rehabilitation projects, the authors of this technical article conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with senior managers and professionals with extensive experience in subway rehabilitation projects [1]. The following provides a summary of findings from these interviews:
Special Services
The availability and proper management of special services and resources, such as diversions, flaggers, work-trains, and inspectors are considered among the key challenges of subway rehabilitation projects. These resources and services are usually enterprise-wide shared resources in transit companies. Since different departments within transit companies (e.g., operation, maintenance, and capital improvement departments) have their own prioritized projects, these services are not necessarily assigned with respect to the prioritization specified by other agencies.
Establishing shared goals as well as prioritizing and scheduling subway rehabilitation projects in agreement with or with consideration of the priorities announced by other departments can mitigate risks that are likely to be faced due to shared nature of these resources. For instance, awarding too many contracts during a relatively short timeframe may lead to an over-allocation of enterprise resources which may jeopardize successful completion of these projects. Therefore, it is important for the enterprise to efficiently utilize shared resources by implementing effective program and enterprise resource management practices.
In developing time schedules for subway rehabilitation projects, planning for acquisition of special services plays an important role. Backup and risk response plans should always be in place in the event these services do not become available as planned.
Design Management
Among many practices used for effective design management, integrated design management, proper use of building information modeling (BIM), and efficient coordination among different trades are among the most important factors that play important roles in preventing construction delays. The following provides a summary of the most common design-related causes of delays in subway rehabilitation projects:
Long or more than expected time to review and approve drawings and making ambiguous or unclear comments on shop drawings prepared by contractors are common causes of delay that can be prevented by providing effective design management support. These issues are seen more frequently in areas that are complex in nature or require special engineering expertise (e.g., communication and electrical drawings).
For station equipment and material selection during basic or detailed engineering, close attention should be given to the availability of the chosen items to ensure they are easily-purchasable from local markets. Subway rehabilitation projects are sometimes delayed as a result of either the contractor’s inability to find requested or specified material or due to the long lead time necessary to procure certain items. An example for this condition is special architectural materials that are chosen to match the material used in existing or adjacent areas.
Since subway rehabilitation projects are mostly small to medium size projects, they are typically executed using a design-bid-build delivery system [2]. Nonetheless, the quality of design plays an important role in successful implementation of subway rehabilitation projects and ensuring they are completed on-time and on-budget.
Design changes usually occur due to technical or technological requirements, special needs of operations and maintenance departments, emergency, and change in project prioritization. During early phases of subway projects, design changes are significantly less costly, especially if the changes are initiated prior to contract award. As soon as construction contracts are awarded, design changes become significantly more difficult to manage and they typically result in substantial cost and time impacts.
Utility Relocations
Some subway rehabilitation projects require construction teams to work in or under public streets with complex utility systems such as sewer lines, gas, water, electrical, phone, fiber optic, and storm drains. These utilities are under the authority of different agencies. For relocations of these lines, the project team needs to fully involve proper agencies, and execute relocation activities with close coordination with all affected parties. However, the relocation work is sometimes executed by utility agencies. In these cases, construction contractor can only oversee the on-site operations and cannot interfere or be actively involved with relocation operations. Since utility relocations and maintenance work are executed throughout a year, various changes may occur to a utility line in a short period of time. Therefore, it is important to note that the existing as-built drawings are not always up-to-date and accurate.
Even if the design team considered the latest as-built drawings of utility lines for a design subject, it is good practice to verify the accuracy of as-built drawings to ensure construction work will not encounter any differing site conditions. A close coordination with utility agencies, achieved through either direct contact or liaisons, is required to ensure the accuracy of as-built utility drawings.
Due to many uncertainties involved in in utility relocation work, relocation operations have the potential to significantly delay subway projects. Establishing proper channels of communication and coordination between transit companies, contractual parties, and local utility agencies is essential to mitigate risks.
Performance of Contractors
Despite their complexity, station rehabilitation projects are not usually considered among large or mega projects from the budget perspective. As a result, large construction contractors are not usually interested in attending bid processes for these projects. The high profit margin of large construction contractors and low chance of winning the bid are other reasons that large construction contractors are not usually involved in public projects for rehabilitation of subway stations. Subway rehabilitation projects are typically complex and have special needs. Limited technical and managerial capacities of small construction contractors (e.g., limited capabilities in project management in general and in execution planning, resource planning, and scheduling in particular) may adversely impact the successful implementation of subway rehabilitation projects. The risks become greater if a contractor / subcontractor overly commits to too many projects at the same time because under these conditions, resource management becomes more challenging.
Project team
In addition to the performance of contractors, the availability and quality of clients’ project teams play an important role in effective time management of subway rehabilitation projects. Key examples of the required capabilities and personal skills include having the required knowledge and experience, having effective communication skills, dedication, making on-time and decisive decisions, and adherence to decisions made.
Organizational processes
Late approval of additional work orders (AWO), late issuance of notices to proceed (NTP), and untimely approval of change orders frequently cause delays in subway rehabilitation projects. Improving organizational procedures and effective use of operational management practices can significantly increase the productivity of public transit companies and improve organizational capabilities of these agencies in effective project management. Examples of processes to improve organizational performance in project management include coordination processes, procedures for issuing task orders, review and approval processes, and contract management.
References:
[1]. M Mirhadi Fard, Planning and scheduling requirements of subway station rehabilitation/renovation projects, AACE International’s 2016 Annual Meeting, Toronto
[2]. Kildare, S.L., Blank, G.P., Developing Program Controls for a Large Program, AACE International Transactions CSC.03, 2001.
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