| Application/Advantages of Alternative Project
Delivery Systems |
| Project Delivery Australian Style: Innovative,
Aggressive and State-of-the-Art |
| By Jim Rozek, Melbourne, Australia, 61-3-9866-6066,
pbjrozek@ozemail.com.au;
Singapore 65-226-3658, jrozek@dtss.com.sg |
| Under a single contract, PB and the Office of Independent
Reviewer team partners served two entities with far different objectives
and responsibilities. They maintained their independence throughout,
fulfilled a number of critical obligations and helped to ensure the
success of one of the world’s major roadway projects. |
|
Melbourne City Link Project will upgrade and connect three
major freeways in Australia's second most populous city. |
The $2.0 billion (Australian) Melbourne City Link Project (MCLP) is
the largest infrastructure road project ever undertaken in Australia.
It is being delivered through a design/build/own/ operate/transfer
(DBOOT) contract with a design/construction period of 45 months. MCLP
will operate as a toll road for a 34-year concession period.
The project is being performed entirely under ISO 90001
quality standards, which means that all designers, contractors and
subcontractors are required to operate under an ISO 9000 certification.
PB and two Australian consultancies form the Office of the Independent
Reviewer (OIR), which was defined contractually as an independent
expert experienced in road, bridge and tunnel design and construction.
We were brought onto the team because of our expertise in tunnels,
large bridges and other large projects, all considered high risk areas
for the MCLP. Since the project began in early February 1996, we have
provided full-time senior staff comprised of U.S. expatriates and
Australian engineers.
Role of the
Office of Independent Reviewer
The role of the OIR is unique because the constituent firms perform
under a tripartite contract with both the state’s Melbourne
City Link Authority (MCLA) and Transurban, the owner/operator of the
DBOOT concession. The OIR firms also have a number of obligations
and responsibilities to the Transfield Obayashi Joint Venture (TOJV),
the
project’s design/build contractor; the bank’s engineer
and others.
In general, the OIR’s responsibilities have been to provide
expert review and comment on critical issues regarding design and
construction, the program, compensation and other matters for interested
parties, including the general public. More specifically, this has
included:
- Reviewing the design before commencement
of construction
- Monitoring the design for compliance with
the project scope and technical requirements
- Evaluating and recommending proposed changes
to elements of the concession deed
- Verifying contractor claims for payment,
extension of time and work completed
- Issuing “stop work” orders if
the construction was deemed unsafe for the workers or the public.
A number of factors were important to the state in preparing the technical
brief describing the OIR’s role. Neither MCLA nor the state’s
road agency had any prior involvement with the design or construction
of a major road tunnel, let alone a tunnel in the variable and extremely
difficult ground conditions known to exist along the alignment. MCLA
was also cognizant of the fact that it would carry the risk for issues
such as latent conditions, industrial relations, land acquisition,
construction and extension of time in normal delivery processes.
For this DBOOT project, it was necessary to transfer the risks to
the developer because the consequences of revenue loss through any
form of delay would be far greater than normal, where delays to a
project are limited to direct costs, not the user benefits. MCLA would
not have any direct involvement in either the management of the design
and construction processes or in the assessment of extensions of time.
The state would achieve its objectives by specifying design life of
the various project elements and then identifying the remnant life
at the end of the concession period.
Figure 1: The MCLP tunnels are equipped with state-of-the-art
fire life safety devices, control and monitoring systems. Commissioning
of the tunnels is in the final stages. |
Figure 2: The 490 meter Bolte Bridge is dominated by two
140 meter high towers. The bridge is a vital link and provides
motorists a sweeping view of the city. |
Melbourne
City Link Project Noteworthy Features
Project
• 22-km (13
miles) of 6- to 8-lane new, widened, or existing inner city
tollway.
• $2 billion (Australian) private sector
investment.
• DBOOT principles of delivery and risk
management.
Engineering
•
Two 3-lane tunnels totaling 5 km (3 miles) in complex geology
with sophisticated mechanical and electrical tunnel management
systems (Figure 1).
• 490-m (1,600-foot)-long twin
cast-in-place balanced cantilever Bolte Bridge (Figure 2).
• 4.5 km (2.7 miles) of match cast elevated viaduct and
nine match cast ramps made at the largest precast yard in the
southern hemisphere.
ITS Traffic Management
• State-of-the-art traffic management/operations center.
• Automatic incident detection (AID) over entire length
using camera-based optical character recognition (OCR).
• Variable message signs/fixed signs/advisory signs.
Tolling System
• Fully electronic
tolling (no toll booths).
• State-of-the-art, nonloop-based
vehicle detection and classification system (VDC).
•
600,000 transponders manufactured, delivered and distributed.
• Sophisticated revenue management, including automated
day pass system.
Environmental
• Noise levels limited to 63 dBA L10 (18 hour).
• Construction of a 300-m (900-foot) -long sound tube
on an elevated viaduct.
• More than 11 km (6.6 miles)
of noise walls up to 13 m (43 feet) high.
Aesthetic
• 200 000 m2 (2.2 million
square feet), 15 000 trees and 330 000 shrubs, one of the largest
landscape projects in Australian history.
• Gateway
statements including two 140-m (462-foot) -tall towers on either
side of the Bolte Bridge, and the “beam and stick”
formation, including a 78-m (257-foot)-long, 5 m by 5 m (16.5
feet by 16.5 feet) beam inclined at 30 degrees over the southbound
motorway.
• Deepening and widening of the Moonee Ponds
Creek, which parallels the Western Link.
• New bicycle
and pedestrian paths. |
The OIR’s “project brief” outlined that:
- OIR would be appointed by the government to ensure the project
met the state’s requirements in all aspects.
- Quality of design and delivery mechanisms
were the responsibility of the DBOOT developers, who would be
responsible for the appointment of a design consultant and proof
engineer and development of a quality assurance system that included
appointment of a quality auditor.
- The approver’s (OIR’s) function
was given further independence from direct involvement in supervision
by specifying that the function would be undertaken through a
process of overview and reasonable checking of:
– The consortium’s performance
– Designers of record
– Proof engineering
– Quality assurance auditor.
Refinement of the OIR Role during Bidding
Further evolution of the OIR’s function continued throughout
the concession bidding phase, which was followed by extensive exchange
of views with Transurban, the preferred consortium. The consortium
proposed that risks for such a project could be minimized or shared
using a management structure in which the design and construction
would be undertaken by separate contract and a similar arrangement
would be concluded for the future operations stage.
The complicated financing structure (involving four leading banks
with support from more than 20 foreign banks and contribution by equity
holders) caused concern, however, that each party would insist on
direct involvement in the overview of the works. This situation had
not been envisaged by the state when the initial brief was prepared.
It was realized that it would be inappropriate to have more than one
organization “signing-off” (approving) on design and construction
and issuing certification of completion. Such an arrangement would
invariably lead to disputes, if only through diversity of opinion,
so the developer ensured that the banks and equity holders could be
assured of “quality” by making all documentation available
to the independent reviewer (i.e., total access). Subsequently, a
Memorandum of Understanding was entered into between the state and
Transurban regarding the role of the OIR, including its obligations
and responsibilities.
The OIR in
Action
Transurban, its stakeholders and MCLA sought assurances that an independent
review and assessment had been performed in addition to the design
review and certification process normally performed by the contractor’s
designers. The OIR reviewed all concept, preliminary and final designs
by “general overview and reasonable checking.”
Since February 1996, more than 8000 submissions have been made to
the OIR for review, including thousands of drawings, specifications,
work method statements and project-related documentation. Of these
8000, more than 2700 were submitted for formal approval. To get the
job done successfully within the allotted time frame:
- The OIR formed a multi-disciplined group
of senior engineers to perform the design review and approval.
- Technical specialists in the U.S. reviewed
a number of submissions involving tunnels and major structures.
- Tunnel ventilation and mechanical and electrical
systems were reviewed by PB’s Hong Kong office.
- The intensity of the OIR’s technical
review was “ramped up” in areas of high risk.
Of course, much had been done during the earlier stages of the project
to ensure the success of the final review effort. For example, the
close coordination and communication between the TOJV’s designers
and OIR’s technical staff facilitated timely resolution of issues.
Throughout the design process, the designers actively sought the opinion
and advice of the OIR to resolve issues early, streamline the design
review process and avoid surprises.
Equally important, the designer identified and developed a number
of options and alternatives that required early endorsement from the
OIR. As such, a number of alternatives that benefit the project were
endorsed successfully and implemented in an acceptable time frame.
The OIR relied heavily on the designers’ endorsement of the
design for compliance with the project scope and technical requirements.
The Concession Deed provided that an additional independent review
be performed by a proof engineer (employed by TOJV) in areas of high
risk, such as the tunnels. In all cases, the OIR required resolution
of design issues and closure of proof engineer concerns as well as
OIR technical staff concerns.
In every submission, the OIR’s quality assurance group reviewed
the design submissions that the design had gone through the proper
sign off process and met the project’s quality requirements.
Likewise, all design groups, consultants and specialists were required
to operate under ISO 9001 certification or TOJV’s ISO certification.
By early 1997, there were more than 70 quality systems operating on
the project, all of which were monitored and audited regularly.
Postscript
The MCLP is being delivered in two parts, the Western Link and the
Southern Link. The Western Link was completed in 1999 and opened to
traffic in August of that year. The road had 145,000 vehicles on the
first day, which was one of the largest volumes any road had achieved
in the State of Victoria. Volumes have subsequently reached over 178,000
per day. Electronic tolling began on 3 January 2000. The Southern
Link tunnels have not yet opened, although the remainder of the Southern
link at-grade roadway has opened but is not being tolled. The electronic
tolling system is in its final stages of testing and commissioning.
The MCLP represents the culmination of a wide range of entities and
contractual arrangements focused on a single outcome. A number of
impediments, large and small, have been overcome, including claims,
lawsuits, industrial problems and labor problems.
The success of this project illustrates that delivery of a DBOOT project
requires:
- The commitment, resources and dedication
of a large number of players
- Decisions being made in a timely manner
- Processes that ensure that the work progresses
in accordance with the requirements of the law, the contract,
and the rights of jurisdictional agencies and the public.
The MCLP parties entrusted a number of critical obligations and assurances
to the OIR. Variations to the OIR role are currently being employed
in other projects in Australia. The experience, the lessons learned,
and the application may be appropriate in other DBOOT projects. It
has been a valuable experience in a number of ways.
The MCLP has been a matter of interest to, and received support from,
PB’s most senior officers. The MCLA and Transurban were well
apprised of PB’s experience on “similar” projects,
having visited Boston’s Central Artery project and others. The
litany of PB specialists and engineers, including a number of technical
directors, who performed reviews and provided advice or technical
input reflects the company’s and its top peoples’ ability
and
willingness to support distant projects. |
|
Jim Rozek is a registered professional engineer
who has been with PB for more than twenty years. He has spent almost
ten years overseas managing PB’s efforts for mega transportation
projects on multiyear assignments in Turkey, Thailand, Australia,
and now Singapore.
1 ISO 9000 is a set of standards
that guide firms in achieving a high level of quality in the services
they provide and products they produce. It has become the de facto
international quality standard by which firms are measured.
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