IMPROVED CONTRACT MANAGEMENT ON £50m SOUTH WALES TRUNK ROAD IMPROVEMENT CONTRACT
BIW, Welsh Assembly Government & SRB Civil Engineering Ltd managing costs
17 May 2010
SRB Civil Engineering, the Welsh Assembly Government's contractor awarded the £50m A477 Road Improvement Scheme in west Wales, has chosen BIW Technologies (BIW) to help it implement more cost effective governance processes to improve the management of the NEC3 contract for itself, its client and its main subcontractors.
SRB Civil Engineering Ltd is a joint venture between two of Ireland's leading civil engineering contractors: Sisk and Roadbridge. They are supported by engineering and environmental consultant Gifford.
The A477 from St Clears all the way to Pembroke Dock is one of the main links from the M4 motorway into Pembrokeshire. It forms an important part of the Welsh Assembly Government's strategic road network. This 9.6km scheme will bypass the villages of Llanddowror and Red Roses, cross the River Hydfron and pass through several environmentally sensitive areas including the Taf Valley. It will greatly improve the alignment of the road, raise safety standards and improve journey times and journey time reliability.
As an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) project, the contractor has been appointed at an early stage in the scheme's ongoing development to ensure that construction issues are fully taken into account during the design process.
SRB Civil Engineering Ltd engaged BIW to implement its NEC Contract Administration platform to aid them control the management of communication relating to two main versions of the NEC contract. The team is using the Professional Services Contract (PSC) during the preliminary design and statutory procedures. Following the making of the Statutory Orders they will transfer to the Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) for the detailed design, construction and on into the maintenance phase..
The NEC contract requires considerable administrative and management resource from the client, design team, contractor and subcontractors, to control effectively. BIW has developed a deep understanding on the areas where significant cost improvements can be gained in the management of the various NEC contract forms and has developed an innovative application platform able to deliver sustainable cost savings for its clients.
BIW CEO Colin Smith says:
"The client was clear in its requirements. It wanted a system that all parties could use to manage a variety of contracts (PSC and ECC with various options) in the same environment. Having a single contract administration system will help it to manage the impact of changes in one phase of the scheme on another."
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Notes to editors:
- Project control application services from BIW Technologies (www.biwtech.com) were first employed in 1999 on UK construction projects for major retailer Sainsbury's. BIW believes it is the European leader in web-based collaboration systems for the capital projects marketplaces, measured by numbers of users, usage and volume of data.
- The BIW platform is a sophisticated web-based supply chain integration technology, designed specifically for construction and engineering projects or programmes. Each client is provided with a unique and secure, project or programme-specific environment created around a knowledge database. With this, data can be made available securely to every team member from the earliest concepts, through detailed design, buildability studies, pre-fabrication, construction, engineering, maintenance, operation and improvement to the eventual demolition or dismantling of the facility.
- BIW customers include leading companies such as Bovis Lend Lease, Sainsbury's, Mace, Crest Nicholson, Gleeds, Canary Wharf, The Resort Group, The Wellcome Trust and the Coal Authority.
- BIW and BIW Contract Administration are trademarks or registered trademarks of BIW Technologies Ltd.
