Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Day 4 in the GHD house.

In September 2014 the Victorian State Government made an election commitment to extend metropolitan rail services from South Morang to Mernda in Victoria, Australia. The extension is estimated by the Government to cost between $400-600M AUD. The project seeks to enhance connectivity to Mernda through the extension of the existing railway line, including two new stations and associated stabling (train parking) and infrastructure works.

Victoria’s State Budget for 2015-2016 committed $9M AUD to develop the business case, undertake site investigations and commence any necessary land acquisition and other associated project development activities for the MREP (Mernda Rail Extension Project).

The State Government assembled the LXRA (Level Crossing Removal Authority) who approached GHD for interim Technical advice in order to prepare a reference design fit for tender. The program objective of GHD is to provide the engineering and associated professional Technical services required for the preparation of tender documentation relating to the extension of the MREP. Effectively, the LXRA did not know exactly what they wanted and asked GHD to tell them what they needed.

GHD has subcontracted some of the works to AECOM who are assisting in design. The completed reference design will include Technical documentation required to inform a request for tender (RFT) to go out to market as part of a collaborative design and construct (D&C) tender process.

I am currently employed by Victoria Transport Infrastructure section in GHD. The team I find myself in is responsible for producing the Specification for the MREP, with SMEs from various stakeholders (road, rail) assigned to the team as contractors. The MREP will be completed using the AS 4300-1995 (Australian Standard General conditions of contract for design and construct). The Specification section of the contract is comprised of 4 parts:

1. General conditions
2. Stated purpose
3. Technical Specification
4. Appendices

To describe it simplistically, the contract is an AS4300-1995 Design and Construct with the exception of the Technical Specification which is ‘bolted on’ after completion by the relevant parties. The first challenge is that there are no drawings yet. The Spec and drawings are being produced concurrently across 3 different office blocks in Melbourne and communication is poor. Time is critical and meetings are viewed as a waste of time when people would rather be getting on with their day jobs in order to meet tight deadlines.

The second challenge lies in getting road and rail authorities to present their Specs in a uniform manner.

The third challenge is the referencing of work. GHD has fallen foul of contradicting itself in past Specs. To manage this risk, we intend describing an item once in the Tech Spec and then referencing that section throughout. The GCC (General Conditions of Contract) and GSoW (General Scope of Works) will then have to be referenced to the Technical Specs. The issue here is that neither the GCC nor the GSoW have been written yet.

We have 3 weeks to produce the Spec for the client and I am responsible for ‘managing the production of the document and ensuring the Specification and the design drawings are coherent and not contradictory’. I’m still trying to work out what my job title is supposed to be…