Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

This blog aims to give a brief overview of the project I am working on here in Port Augusta, along with progress to date and key risks/issues identified by John Holland Group (JHG).

The Project

The overall aim of the project is to produce a year –round sustainable horticultural products for the Australia’s national grocery market and to do so with minimal fossil fuel usage and no extraction of fresh water from the environment. To achieve this the project will incorporate a solar energy collection system that is designed to heat water for thermal energy storage and use. The hot water is then used to distil freshwater from sea water and heat the greenhouse in cold conditions. The excess steam produced is used to drive a steam turbine and generator. The greenhouses alone will cover 20ha and the tower will be 115m. This system is simplified below:

The Site

The site is in the bush, approximately 12km South of Port Augusta. For those of you unaware of Port Augusta, it is classified as a major city in South Australia, but with a population of around 13000, think more like small town. It is situated about 300km north of Adelaide at the head of the Spencer Gulf and it is a bit of a crossroads town, with the main communication lines (rail and road) linking North/South and East/West crossing here. The site was selected as the area has a warm desert climate, with low humidity and sun almost every day of the year. (Although this week work on site was suspended as 33mm of rain fell in 12 hours).

Contract

The contract is an Engineering, Procurement and Construct (EPC) which is the same as a Design and Build Contract. It was awarded to JHG on 1 Dec 14, with ground works beginning just two weeks later currently the project is due for completion in Oct 16.

As this an EPC contract the final cost ($168 million) of the project has already been agreed with the client and finances secured from an investor. In order to secure this finance the client was forced to appoint a main contractor to manage the whole project, additionally the amount of finance is the upper limit, therefore there is no scope for change on the client’s behalf, without having to find savings elsewhere within the project, and this again is identified as a key risk by John Holland Group (JHG).

The majority of subcontractors have already been selected for the construction and have been used in the detailed design stage, and are listed below:

Civil works – York Civil

Greenhouses – Van Der Hoven

Power Generation – AALBERG

Balance of Plant – KBR

Electrical – TBC

Risks

One of the key risks identified by JHG is the interface between each of the subcontractor elements, in particular the E&M elements. In addition because several of the subcontractors are new to working with a main contractor there are concerns over the difference in perceptions and procedures, especially in regards to risk management and planning. As an example, last week two loads of concrete had to be turned around from site; Van Der Hoven had ordered it for the foundations for the first greenhouse, however they had not submitted Inspection and Testing Plans, thus no one from JHG had inspected the foundations. In addition the delivery had not been briefed during the pre-start, therefore none of the plant operating on site knew about it, raising issues about safety.  By the time inspections had been made, the concrete had been sitting there too long and was rejected. Clearly there are also various environmental risks when working on a site in the middle of the bush:

Progress to Date

So far the ground works have been the focus, laying out of the first greenhouse is now taking place and the foundations dug. So far JHG representation on site has been limited to around 5 personnel, this is changing at the moment with someone new turning up almost every day, and a new project manager (Former Royal Engineer Mark Burnett OBE) is due in the next couple of weeks. With this influx of personnel the organisational structure and roles and responsibilities on site is changing daily, with the new project manager hopefully this will stabilise. My role within the project is still up for debate, with various people offering up opinions, but confirmation TBC. So far similar to Rich I have been reading various contracts, attending meetings with stakeholders and getting to know the JHG procedures.