East-West Bonds Scheme - Assignment Example

EAST WEST LINK PROJECT By Student’s name Course code and name Professor’s name University name City, State Date of submission Project Background The East West Link Project is aimed at easing congestion within the city of Melbourne through the construction of an 18 kilometre stretch of road from the Eastern Freeway to the Western Ring Road. According to the project website the first stage of this roadway is currently underway with government committing itself in all aspects to ensure project inception for stage one later in 2014.This stage shall cover a 6 kilometre roadway that shall connect CityLink and the Eastern Freeway as shown in the project map below. Further, this project has been thoroughly scrutinized by the stakeholders during the early planning stage. The designs for this massive infrastructural project are already in place according to Linking Melbourne Authority (2013). This is backed by the financial analysis of the project using tools such as cost benefit analysis and the internal rate of return which shall be discussed later on in the project finance section. Case studies have also been used to illustrate the importance of this project to the public; a stance that is meant to indicate the social benefits that this project poses to the community (Linking Melbourne Authority, 2013). Through a series of consultations, it has been resolved that since Melbourne is one of the fastest growing cities in Australia, there arises need to develop infrastructural measures to curb the rising need for transportation in the future. It has been established that the city connections across North of Melbourne are and shall be under great pressure 25 years to come due to high population growth. The main alternative as suggested by the Linking Melbourne Authority is that there is a cross city connection between the mentioned areas. Another reason why this project is critically placed is that the liveability of Melbourne’s inner north is largely affected by traffic especially during the peak hours. This project or at least stage one which is the major focus of this study is capable of bringing a continuity of traffic flow to the existing Eastern Freeway thereby reducing traffic overflow to other roads which could have served other purposes of importance. Scholars and workers plying the CityLink won’t be having any difference to those who shall be using this new route if successfully executed (Linking Melbourne Authority, 2013). Figure 1: Project Map (Anon., 2013). Project Design This project design shall concentrate majorly on the geotechnical work while ensuring that pollution measures are put into consideration in order to avoid conflicts with the existing establishments. For this purpose, it is mandatory that areas in possession of flora and fauna shall have 4.4 kilometres in order to protect endangered species or communities. The initial stages of this vital project shall also link the exiting freeway networks through surface connections to be placed strategically in a manner that shall enhance the outlook. The design shall also have another tunnel to lead the motorists down the port as part of the suggested 18km link (Anon., 2013). The design stage shall also involve positioning route of the road in as per the present conventions in order to aid in land acquisition process. The design is expected to be complete of all the pricing and scope in order to permit wise vetting of subcontracting companies and other entities related to the establishment of this project. The suggested design methodology is also going to enable significant time savings for the execution stage and avoidance of forecast constraints. Therefore, the timelines shall be defined clearly with all the potential delays being factored in for the sake of stakeholder resolution (Gransberg et al., 2006). Further, the design shall also focus on the choices with the best returns that shall be documented herein as a mandatory prequalification technique. The chosen locations include the Eastern Freeway as a connection for the local area and the tunnels. An overpass shall be availed at the Hoddle Street as per the project website http://www.linkingmelbourne.vic.gov.au with the existing loops being eliminated as part of this exercise. There shall be pedestrian bridges in such areas as the Clifton Hill as the old ones shall be obsolete due to the design. Just like any other road project, temporary side tracks shall be constructed to aid in the flow of the excess of traffic. The land at Alexandra parade shall be acquired at the early stages by following the gazetted laws on land acquisition for government projects. The design document shall also contain data on how the Elliott Avenue shall be expanded to provide access areas for the tunnels and also the exit points. This shall ensure that the footprint to Royal Park is minimized for the sake of the Upfield Railway Line which passes just below it. Another important point to note is that the disturbance to public traffic has to be kept to the minimum by this project. Keeping the project disturbance at a minimum shall ensure that the project is executed within the shortest period possible as a major constraint shall have been evaded (Anon., 2013). The royal park area shall be secluded for the sake of project personnel offices and equipment storage area. This shall also be the designated starting area for the tunnel boring exercise. The nearby sporting grounds are also going to act as grounds for material storage upon lease agreement with the owners. These include Ross Straw Field and the Moonee Ponds Creek although some in the secluded areas shall be avoided through any means necessary. A temporary ramp shall be created at the CityLink next to the Moonee Ponds Creek as suggested earlier. The Port is also worth mentioning as part of the designation process since the tunnel has to be free of any disturbance to avoid pollution and increasing the rate if curing for this important structure (Anon., 2013). Change in design shall be approached systematically to avoid escalation of extra scope thereby limiting state expenditure to set limits for this particular project. The project team shall comprise of experienced road construction experts who have handled such projects before to avoid failure as seen in other major infrastructural projects with escalated costs. A competitive tendering process shall therefore be used in order to obtain the best contractor for this project. Other than this kind of tendering, contractors and subcontractors who have engaged themselves with large project within the state shall be invited to render their bids for consideration. These subcontractors shall have to abide by the construction procedure that has been set up by the public private partnership models that do speak on behalf of the government. Any new and proven construction processes shall be highly welcome in case they are labelled as feasible by the vetting parties who are the executive decision makers and the government representative. Other changes which may range from small to miscellaneous shall have to be undertaken by the contractors as a move to add value to the main project (Anon., 2013). Tendering Process The tendering procedure shall be awarded in accordance to the Australian government rules. The tendering document shall contain the land acquisition process in which the terms shall be explicitly defined in order to offer guidance to any of the parties that may wish to tender their interest of expression. As such it shall be mandatory for all the companies placing their tenders to be well knowledgeable of the national conventions with regard to this issue of importance. The assessment committee shall aid in carrying out the initial assessment for the planning department. All the prequalified companies shall engage actively in the public hearing and exhibitions to be held during designated dates (Seddon, 2009). Stage one of this corridor has been well researched by the government laboratories to aid in the establishment of this project’s feasibility in the first place. Therefore this information shall be furnished to all the prequalified parties in order to help them in coming up with the proper guidelines for project control. The project executive team shall avail expression of interest documents online for shortlisting purposes. The shortlisted companies shall be requested to tender in their proposals through the request for proposal documentation to be availed online. The request for proposal documents shall demand that since the project scope is fully covered within the expression of interest phase through the project website, the shortlisted companies shall have to provide a full cost in their tender documents. Interactive workshops shall be carried out from time to time to acquaint these companies with the requirements and proposed solutions to the major problem issue. The vetting and completion phase of this process shall depend on state and company oriented representatives’ engagement in negotiations and respondents to this effect. Once the preferred company is chosen, this process shall be closed for in-house negotiations in order to advance the possibility of securing discounts and other extended project procurement procedures verification (Linking Melbourne Authority, 2013). All the companies allowed in the tendering exercise shall have to comply with the National Code. This shall also translate to all the occupational health and safety rules as per the Fair Work Act of 2012. According to the subcontract rules and guide lines, the compliance to these rules is mandatory when undertaking such projects. The compliance forms have to be filled out in order to establish the initiatives being undertaken by the companies to ensure maximum safety to the staff working at the site. These submissions shall be in accordance to clause 8 of the Victorian terms and conditions (Australian Government ComLaw, 2012). The evaluation shall be based on various evaluation criteria which shall be sought after by the vetting team. According to the Australian rules on tendering, the companies seeking to deliver these services must be fully competent and have a proven past experience to handle such projects. The complexity of projects covered must also stand out for deliverables such as tunnel construction in which phase one shall be purely entangled in. Urban architecture should also be outstanding in projects carried out by the tenderers with significant examples being singled out for preview. The companies should also indicate in their plan on how they intend to isolate or control the excess of traffic that shall be plying on the interfered route. The interfacing capability is also important especially when it comes to private road users and ensuring traffic flow to the public road users (National Library of Australia, 1998). The operation experience is also expected to offer a benchmark especially with regards to the ability of the company to support the whole life of such a capital intensive project. The cost optimization strategy should also be delivered with the contract documents with an ability to deliver based in the same low cost budget. While cost may be outstanding in terms of importance, the companies engaging in this tender should also portray their competence in project cost management. This shall ensure that the projected cost meets the designated cost. The company choosing to tender should have prior knowledge in toll collection services for road networks. This shall include the capability to effectively interface with third part collection companies. Not only shall this factor be limited to the toll criterion but also the other stakeholders that are affiliated to the project (Chan et al., 2010). The companies engaging in this tender should have a proper understanding of the commercial requirements within the state of Victoria. This shall be in hand with the respondent’s ability to demonstrate ability to meet the proposed design to the best of national interest. In this context, the heritage of the Victorian government shall be withheld in all aspects by the contracting companies to avoid clashing landscapes. Proactive management style should also be embraced by any company tendering to undertake this project. This shall prove the commitment of these companies to the management of this project from the inception to the closure stage. On the other side, the innovative capability of these companies should be proven (Commonwealth of Australia, 2011). Project Execution The execution stage of this project shall be monitored and audited in all aspects to ensure that it conforms to the state’s standards. Prior to execution of the project, the construction firm should line up a competent team that should be supported by the organisational structure. This shall show on how the mandates shall be distributed from the lowest to the highest individual in the organogram. This shall show the risk taking capabilities of each and every member of the suggested team as a sign of devotion to the project health and safety. Thereafter the project teams should be distributed well along the project life in order to ensure maximum involvement and that the project is executed within the set period of time. A breakdown of the decision making model should be availed to the project executive team that represents the Victoria government in order to avoid misleading stances when it comes to communication (Knapp & Knapp, 2006). Figure 2: An artist impression of stage one of the East West Link (Vimeo, 2013) Executing and monitoring the processes shall also come in handy for the sake of project delivery. The process group is defined as clustering of work activities in a manner that they are likely to result in an undisputable project path. This is usually done in order to bring together all the project deliverables in accordance to the project budget and scope as a single objective worth being achieved. This product service shall aim at achieving the client’s initial requirements or go even beyond the expectations as set. Team development for the subcontractors shall be vetted in order to establish their conformance to the achievements by this project (Knapp & Knapp, 2006). A quality assurance team shall also be set in place to ensure that the scope of work is adhered to and that the achieved quality is conforms to the budget that is initially set at $ 8 billion as quoted by State Government of Victoria (2013). The monitoring process shall be utilized in ensuring that the managers shall meet the project objectives in a satisfactory manner. This shall be well place in tracking all the variables such as scope, finance, quality and time. In other words the tracking and reviewing of phase one of these projects shall be done through engagement of consultancy firms that can deliver well when it comes to the highway design and delivery. This process shall also keep track of all the major changes that shall be taking place from one time to the other. Written status reports regarding this project shall be availed to the project executive team for necessary actions from time to time. The actual costs on the other side shall be tallied to the expected costs accordingly in order to audit the progress in all aspects. The techniques or tools utilized in coming up with such reports shall be tailored in such a manner that they are not likely to affect the project team’s morale. The actual deliverables regarding this project must however be taken into account by any of the techniques applied by these procedures to avoid conflicting with what may be found on the ground in case of a prompt visit (Gudda, 2011). The quality assurance team shall ensure that the managerial function attached to this task is met with absolute satisfaction. Performing this task is labelled as managerial due to the mandates that are attached to this task. First of all, quality assurance refers to the ability of the project to meet the goal while ensuring that the stipulated standards are met by the team at the ground. All the problems that are encountered by the subcontractor at site should be rectified with immediate effect to avoid escalation of these problems. Proper documentation should be carried out for all the processes that are maintained by the quality assurance team in accordance to project execution conventions set by the government. Together with quality checks, there shall be periodical quality checks that shall mainly feature in the review process of this project. If embraced well, this tool shall benefit the project’s lifecycle greatly since this structured process shall cater for most of the flaws that are expected to occur during the execution process. The project quality team shall be final in making decisions of small magnitudes that are not likely to affect the execution period. On the contrary, the project adjustments that shall come in as extra work shall be passed to the project executive board for further scrutiny. Performance control shall also be done by the project quality team, which shall be mandated to this technical role (Rose, 2005). The project finance for this project is set at $ 6 – 8 billion which is a large sum to manage indeed. The project team shall be guided by the set project delivery systems that are governed by the local laws. This is to aid in financing as a main approach to avoiding constraints that are likely to mar the subcontractor from delivering the project in a timely manner. All the expenditures shall be guided by an urge to deliver in a manner that all the stakeholders shall be satisfied. The funds to be pumped into this project shall be raised by the federal government through toll revenue. This shall not be allocated in a lump sum but in quanta as per the percentage proceeds set aside for this important project (Edwards, 2013). Waste management shall also be approached in a systematic manner that is in accordance with the laws governing the state of victoria. In order to enhance this operation, a team of experts specialising in occupational health and safety shall be brought into this picture through consultation services. This team should have capabilities to develop an innovative approach towards waste management and train the project personnel on the importance of keeping the area free of pollutants and other toxic materials. Land use should also set in as part of waste management consultation in order to ensure that the noise emanating from the area of the project is well shielded especially when tunnel digging commences. Recycling shall also be embraced in all aspects of the project to ensure that phase one of the project utilizes the materials that shall result from the tunnel drilling process in the right manner. A rough estimation shows that the tunnel drilling exercise alone may result to 352,000m3 of waste soil to be dealt with. This calls for stringent action when it comes to vetting a control team for the management of this exercise (Government of South Australia, 2013). List of References Anon., 2013. Detailed Project Design. [Online] Available at: http://www.linkingmelbourne.vic.gov.au/pages/detailed-project-design.asp [Accessed 8 October 2013]. Australian Government ComLaw, 2012. Fair Work Amendment Act 2012 - C2012A00174. [Online] Available at: http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2012A00174 [Accessed 9 October 2013]. Chan, P., Chan, D.W. & Yeung, J.F., 2010. Relational Contracting for Construction Excellence: Principles, Practices and Case Studies. New York: Taylor & Francis. Commonwealth of Australia, 2011. National Private Partnership Guidelines. Melbourne: Infrastructure Australia. Edwards, J., 2013. Government Commits Funds for East West Link. [Online] Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-07/government-commits-funds-for east-west- link/4674334 [Accessed 16 October 2013]. Government of South Australia, 2013. Industry Insight Upclose. Adelaide: Zero Waste SA. Gransberg, D.D., Koch, J.A. & Molenaar, K.R., 2006. Preparing for Design-build Projects: A Primer for Owners, Engineers, and Contractors. Virginia: ASCE Publications. Gudda, 2011. A Guide to Project Monitoring and Evaluation. Bloomington: AuthorHouse. Knapp, B.W. & Knapp, B.W., 2006. A Project Manager's Guide to Passing the Project Management (PmP) Exam. New York: www.pmexam.com. Linking Melbourne Authority, 2013. East West Link Project: Stage One. Melbourne: State Government Victoria. Linking Melbourne Authority, 2013. Project Overview. [Online] Available at: http://www.linkingmelbourne.vic.gov.au/pages/project-overview.asp [Accessed 7 October 2013]. National Library of Australia, 1998. APAIS 1998: Australian public affairs information service. Sydney: National Library of Australia. Rose, K., 2005. Project Quality Management. New York: J. Ross Publishing. Seddon. , 2009. Government Contracts: Federal, State and Local. Sydney: Federation Press. State Government of Victoria, 2013. East West Link. [Online] Available at: http://www.dtf.vic.gov.au.Infrastructure-Delivery/Public-private- partnerships/Projects/East-West-Link [Accessed 11 October 2013]. Vimeo, 2013. East West Link: Stage One. [Online] Available at: http://b.vimeocdn.com/ts/443/681/443681035_640.jpg [Accessed 13 October 2013]. Read More

The chosen locations include the Eastern Freeway as a connection for the local area and the tunnels. An overpass shall be availed at the Hoddle Street as per the project website http://www.linkingmelbourne.vic.gov.au with the existing loops being eliminated as part of this exercise. There shall be pedestrian bridges in such areas as the Clifton Hill as the old ones shall be obsolete due to the design. Just like any other road project, temporary side tracks shall be constructed to aid in the flow of the excess of traffic.

The land at Alexandra parade shall be acquired at the early stages by following the gazetted laws on land acquisition for government projects. The design document shall also contain data on how the Elliott Avenue shall be expanded to provide access areas for the tunnels and also the exit points. This shall ensure that the footprint to Royal Park is minimized for the sake of the Upfield Railway Line which passes just below it. Another important point to note is that the disturbance to public traffic has to be kept to the minimum by this project.

Keeping the project disturbance at a minimum shall ensure that the project is executed within the shortest period possible as a major constraint shall have been evaded (Anon., 2013). The royal park area shall be secluded for the sake of project personnel offices and equipment storage area. This shall also be the designated starting area for the tunnel boring exercise. The nearby sporting grounds are also going to act as grounds for material storage upon lease agreement with the owners. These include Ross Straw Field and the Moonee Ponds Creek although some in the secluded areas shall be avoided through any means necessary.

A temporary ramp shall be created at the CityLink next to the Moonee Ponds Creek as suggested earlier. The Port is also worth mentioning as part of the designation process since the tunnel has to be free of any disturbance to avoid pollution and increasing the rate if curing for this important structure (Anon., 2013). Change in design shall be approached systematically to avoid escalation of extra scope thereby limiting state expenditure to set limits for this particular project. The project team shall comprise of experienced road construction experts who have handled such projects before to avoid failure as seen in other major infrastructural projects with escalated costs.

A competitive tendering process shall therefore be used in order to obtain the best contractor for this project. Other than this kind of tendering, contractors and subcontractors who have engaged themselves with large project within the state shall be invited to render their bids for consideration. These subcontractors shall have to abide by the construction procedure that has been set up by the public private partnership models that do speak on behalf of the government. Any new and proven construction processes shall be highly welcome in case they are labelled as feasible by the vetting parties who are the executive decision makers and the government representative.

Other changes which may range from small to miscellaneous shall have to be undertaken by the contractors as a move to add value to the main project (Anon., 2013). Tendering Process The tendering procedure shall be awarded in accordance to the Australian government rules. The tendering document shall contain the land acquisition process in which the terms shall be explicitly defined in order to offer guidance to any of the parties that may wish to tender their interest of expression. As such it shall be mandatory for all the companies placing their tenders to be well knowledgeable of the national conventions with regard to this issue of importance.

The assessment committee shall aid in carrying out the initial assessment for the planning department. All the prequalified companies shall engage actively in the public hearing and exhibitions to be held during designated dates (Seddon, 2009). Stage one of this corridor has been well researched by the government laboratories to aid in the establishment of this project’s feasibility in the first place.

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