Twice as mucky

Process
The project is a design and build contract, with the main contractor having complete design responsibility. The contractor’s team was not located with us initially, but we held regular design meetings and monthly project progress meetings with them to maintain relationships and monitor progress. Once the design was completed, the contractor submitted around 200 drawings and documents to the Thames Water project team for review at the design hold point. 

I worked with the planner to review the programme in order to ensure that all activities were properly linked, the critical paths made sense, and that activity responsibility was split correctly between the contractor and Thames Water. The Thames Water project team met twice weekly during the 28-day review period to discuss the review process and agree responses, before issuing a formal letter confirming acceptance and authorising construction works to commence.

People 
The Thames Water project team is small compared with other recent projects. Rather than ‘man-marking’ the contractor, there has been an emphasis on an assurance regime that gives the contractor the space to carry out its obligations, while requiring the project team to provide enough input to ensure that programme, costs and quality expectations are met. Crucially, the project team has tended to be more outward-looking, focusing on other stakeholders or events that the contractor may have less control over.

Working in a matrix structure, and having the complexity of two different sites to consider, meant that communication within the project team needed a rethink. So we hold weekly meetings, alternating between sites, where team members are encouraged to update the rest of the team about the activities they’re responsible for. This is a useful forum for individuals to challenge each other constructively and discuss problems within a group environment.

The location of the project team is always important. So, as soon as possible, the Thames Water project team co-located with the contractor. This enabled it to elicit the greatest benefits in terms of communication, knowledge sharing and productivity. Being positioned at the sharp end, close to the work sites, also has great advantages because sometimes the only way to clarify things is to get your boots on and go and see for yourself.

Schedule
The contractor updates its programme each month with actual progress made, and this is discussed at the monthly project progress meeting. As a number of critical items have come into focus, especially regarding the commissioning of the combined heat and power (CHP) engines, the frequency of review has increased to weekly, so that risks are better understood and reporting information is gathered for interested stakeholders. 

Stakeholders
As with all complex projects, there are many stakeholders. From a multiple-site perspective, this is more interesting because, although the stakeholder bodies are largely the same, the representatives are sometimes different. An interface schedule was developed that listed all the interactions that the project would have with other parties, assigning a priority score and a responsible person to each interaction. This has allowed stakeholders to be engaged early and to have their key questions answered. These included: Can Thames Water meet its contractual obligations? Can the end product be safely removed from the site? Will key permits be in place and the regulatory bodies satisfied? I’ve found that putting myself in the shoes of stakeholders and thinking about what I would expect if I were them has smoothed the way.

Working safely
Good health and safety practice is at the heart of a complex project like this. There are numerous subcontractors and operatives on-site and many construction hazards, ranging from moving vehicles to working at height. Driving the right behaviours is essential and both the Thames Water project team and the contractor have worked hard to encourage this through a system of site inductions, procedures, reporting and audits. The project team regularly undertakes ‘task observation audits’, where a work activity is inspected at random and critically reviewed with the personnel actually undertaking the work. 

At the time of writing, the project had reached the commissioning phase at both sites. This is the good bit, where the plant is actually working and sludge is being processed. It is very gratifying to see the first processed sludge come out of the plant, the first steam generated from the boilers fired on biogas, and the first power generated by the CHP engines. Communication is key in this phase because we are now interacting with the operational treatment works to obtain our feedstock – daily morning ‘huddles’ are held to discuss strategy, plant data and operational impact. We’ve also developed a schedule to capture equipment in service, so that progress to full capability can be tracked. Next steps are to get both plants up to design capacity, so that we can have them in a position where the site operational management will be able to take them over. To do this, we have seven specific plant tests that the contractor needs to pass and then the 28-day reliability test, which is a ‘hands-off’ test to demonstrate that the plant meets the specification and operates as expected. Only when these have been completed and the hand-over documentation is signed off will the plants become part of the Thames Water operation, allowing the project team to demobilise. 

Handover is the tricky part, as most of the energy and enthusiasm has been poured into construction and commissioning, and it often requires ‘softer’ project management skills. Reaching for my APM Body of Knowledge, I check through the list of interpersonal skills expected: conflict management, teamwork and negotiation. But I also recognise that every project manager needs one personal trait to mesh everything together and finish it all off: determination.    

Chris Davies RPP MAPM is a senior project manager at Mott MacDonald. A chemical engineer by training, he has 14 years’ project management experience, mainly in the water, utility and rail sectors. Mott MacDonald is providing Thames Water with project and commercial management services on a number of large London capital projects