How many wrongs make a right?
My first TMR focussed on what the project team assessed to be the greatest financial risk on the project – the rate of tunnelling. The head contract stated we were to be granted access to site 18 August 2015. The client gave us early access and so we began with surveying, fencing the alignment (7.8kms) and setting up the main office compound, and ting.
Early access to site = early finish and more profit? Or do ‘fools rush in’? The team is not yet fully staffed so every man and woman is doing everything. Amidst the chaos of shoving the entire team into a single portacabin running off a generator, and a wireless network that spanks in every 15 minutes, we are painstakingly making progress in getting ‘things’ to happen.
This leads me onto the point of this blog.
I have spent the lions share (not Cecil who was killed by the trigger happy yank – Brad?) of my time compiling tender packages for subcontractors and materials suppliers. This is followed by tender analysis and then recommendation prior to contract award. Materials such as steel reinforcement can be procured through a PO (purchase order). Having a contract in place saves us the hassle of shopping elsewhere at a later date as it prohibits the supplier from raising his prices midway through the project. It also makes forecasting simpler.
If a ‘grubby subbie’ as the team refers to them is going to provide any labour on site, they are obliged to meet the building code of compliance. This eliminates sham contractors (cowboys) who don’t have their own workforce and attempt to sell the job on for profit after having done absolutely squat. To meet the code of compliance, these smaller companies are required to pay into their employees’ Supa (pension) amongst other things. Proving they are compliant is a lengthy process, taking John Holland about a week to check.
The client (YVW – Yarra Valley Water) is obliged to provide us with a water supply for the project. We have sneakily asked them to place it where they would bear the cost of getting it across a busy road. YVW engaged a local sub-contractor called Select Solutions to carry out the works (directional drilling under the road from a launch pit to a receive pit). My Traffic Management Plan was approved by VicRoads on condition that we would not cut the road to run a conduit for a return waste water pipe. The output – we needed to bore under the road for a return pipe to a temporary sewer.
The risk? Electricity, gas and fibre optics. The plan? Select Solutions, and hence YVW, owned the risk of finding a clear reach under the road. So yesterday I engaged with Select Solutions directly to see if they could do another bore for us, parallel to the supply line i.e. proven route. They were happy to, at a third of the cost of the next best quote I received. His only concern was the timeframe to receive payment when dealing with Tier 1 companies.
The issue? One day is not enough time to verify code of compliance. And the job could not be done off a purchase order due to the labour element. So this was a missed opportunity as a later date would see us incur mobilisation costs which YVW had absorbed for this particular window.
This morning I attended a lift planning course in head office. While I was away, the team just got them to do the work with a ‘promise’ we’d pay them (!), and without proof of compliance and insurance. One could argue that YVW wouldn’t employ a sham contractor, but that’s not the paperwork umbrella JHG requires. In the end the job went ahead without incident and we have a return line, but the consequences of hitting the fibre optic, gas or electricity would have dwarfed the small victory. Cut a handful of fibre optic cables and all of a sudden the rate of tunnelling might not be the biggest money pit.
If that wasn’t enough, VicRoads specified the bore had to be 1.2m below the pavement surface as they will be doing roadworks there in the next few weeks. See the photo, that’s not 1.2m! So what do we do? Backfill and pray VicRoads don’t come sniffing.
Now Select Solutions just need to monitor their bank statements…
Spec? What spec?
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
I guess one has to hope that the YVW contract stipulated the cover required to the supply line such that the back to back instruction issued on site carried the same requirement.