Work with Costain on Porth Relief Road Highlights JCP Methods
JCP Consultancy has been helping the partners Costain, Rhondda Cynon Taff Council and Glamorgan Engineering Consultancy prepare for and launch the Porth Relief Road project. The Welsh Assembly Government is providing aTransport Grant for the £85m scheme, the aim of which is to make moving about through Rhondda Cynon Taff easier, and to stimulate and support the growing economic environmental and social needs of the residents and business community. The project includes constructing a 7.5km single-carriageway highway, involving 11 bridges, three roundabouts and five junctions.
While on site construction was not planned to begin until May 2005, JCP's involvement started in the initial phase when the Client, design team and Costain developed and agreed an initial target cost. The funding body, the Welsh Assembly Government, subsequently approved this. This financially challenging multimillion pound project began for us in October 2004, when our consultants conducted a workshop with key team members of Costain, RCT, the designers and also specialist contractors. This workshop was designed to embed and release the benefits sought from an ECI [Early Contractor Involvement] approach and to not only increase team awareness of the practices and behaviours required to work cooperatively but also identify savings for the project as a whole. This kind of multi-aim workshop is typical of the tailored work we do for our clients who require both hard outputs and high level collaboration from their design and construction teams. The workshop was a great success, and work continued apace.
As part of the continuing process of gearing up for the actual start of the project, January and February 2005 saw two team workshops take place which were specifically focused on value engineering. Funding for the project had been received from the Welsh Assembly but the team still needed to find
significant savings. In all these workshops identified in excess of 25% of real and implementable savings.
During July, a construction launch workshop involving site personnel was also carried out to further nurture and develop new and cooperative working practices throughout the wider team. The outcomes of these activities has included the full integration of the team, actions to better engage local stakeholders and statutory agencies, and enhanced communication across all disciplines. Early involvement of the key supply chain partners at project inception greatly aided this process. The earlier involvement happens, the larger the potential for savings usually exists.
Work on the new road is currently progressing well.
"JCP's experience in collaborative working enabled our team to not only realise big cost savings and many other benefits but also to get the right cooperative behaviours in place early to assist the project throughout its life." Mark Adams RCT Project Director
"Without initaiting the workshop and developing the collaborative culture we have done, we would have seriously struggled to achieve savings necessary to making this scheme viable. JCP helped us get there." Darren James Costain Project Director
