The Channel Tunnel Project: Critical Assessment and Probable Upgrading - Essay Example

?The Channel Tunnel Project: Critical Assessment and Probable Upgrading The Channel Tunnel project has aimed at gaining a 31 mile tunnel which has been created underneath the English Channel between the United Kingdom and France. The primary reason for the creation of this tunnel was to carry from UK to France and back freight trains. Contrary to what was planned when its construction started, in 1988 it took 20% extra time for its constructors to structure it, and the budget that was set for its construction was also over passed. Even though the Channel Tunnel is considered as the world’s most extraordinary project as it risked being constructed in the sector where the public and freight transport was much higher, but still due to the problems that it faced it has not completely been unmatched. This is due to the fact that quite a few other projects of the same length and depths have been constructed. Hence, it is just not the structure that has been always compared to or linked with the success of other such projects, it is the project management that is always assessed and preceded. It was 18 years ago that people considered the Channel Tunnel as a sensational origin when it was first inaugurated. This project has been considered as an opportunity to bring together France that lies within an arm’s length with Britain and one as an illustration for the public structures that are financed privately, which has not been the fortunate scenario. As far as the political and financial establishments of both the countries are concerned, the Channel Tunnel project has been considered as an utter failure, despite the fact that it consisted of a channel that linked two significant regions of Folkestone and Calais. It is largely related that the failure is also linked to the idea that the project was unable to satisfy both the regions when it came to border crossing, which is why France and Britain have been unable to link on its basis. As a result of this failure of integration and connection, the company that runs the Channel Tunnel i.e. Eurotunnel, has continuously gained its income far below the expected gains, due to this, believes McLaughlin (1997, pp. 71-80) the company is facing a downfall and is in a debt of approximately 11 billion dollars, an amount hardly being covered through passenger fees and freight costs. Hence, when it comes to the formulation of project management, a large number of scholars believe that this is not the case of issue. Instead they believe that what needs to be held responsible for the enormous problems is the income bulge that was provided over sanguinely in the deal for construction. It is also believed that for the provision of such amounts of budgets along with their over runs, what has always been a problem is the failure of the project managers to foresee the provided options when it came to getting the people to and from England and France. Due to this it is a commonly held belief that the allowing classified flexibility required a universal and appropriately planned advancement if the managers wanted quality achievement. But on the other hand it has been provided that the management in some parts was very fruitful as all the tasks formulated were first assessed of their criticality and dependence of requisites. This represents that the ideal project management schemes that needed to be applied were partly out forth. The ones that worked in accordance to the ideology of perfectionism advanced that for all tasks quality requirements must be gained, which is why in the construction of the Channel Tunnel procession, the quality of the management has been graded on the scale of one to eight with accordance to its working methodologies division. Therefore, the Channel Tunnel project can be assessed and evaluated on the basis of project management with reference to its composite formulation, mature state of estimation, and brunt on all over procedures. This is why wherever the Channel Tunnel project is mentioned, people do not consider its technological accomplishment but look forward to the continuous development of its flaws and imperfections. It has been believed by a large number of people that one of the major flaws in the formation of the tunnel lies in its own ideology, i.e. people are unable to drive through it. This is mainly for the tunnel does not provide a car route; such tunnels require ventilated paths which were impossible to be created in this case. Due to this, it is a consideration that as the Channel Tunnel project began structuring people who were relieved by the fact that they could conveniently and hastily be connected to and from Britain and France, but that was not the case and thus, they were let down. This paper will therefore put forth the current obtainable facts and formulations regarding the Channel Tunnel project with reference to project management. As the abovementioned provisions have put forth the background evaluation of the issues with regard to the Channel Tunnel project management, thus, further evaluations will put forth the future aspects that will relate to what could have been done better in order to gain the required aspects. Along with the above provisions, this paper will discuss the assessment of the effects which have been caused by the growth of this cross channel on various aspects of the environment of the countries. A detailed critical analysis of the current and past decisions that have been taken will be provided in this paper which will again put forth the aspects that need to be improved. Hence, the major question under discussion and evaluation is “whether or not through better project management strategies, the Channel Tunnel project could have been made?” What needs to be considered deeply, verifies Pompee (2012: n.pg), is the notion that not only has the Channel Tunnel project unveiled flaws but many other major as well as minor projects have been through the same stances. This does not represent the fact that projects fail due to their bad providences but instead it needs to be understood by people that projects face failures due to certain drawbacks in the management structures. Some of the major provisions that can stated as reasons for the failures could be; e.g. if projects get cancelled before completion or are handed over to other parties, and/or if the cost of projects is over the original estimations, this is why one of every eight projects is successful when carried to the end. Some of the other reasons that have been held responsible for the failure of projects by Vickerman (1987: n.pg) include: the appointment of managers that are not trained adequately or are not experienced enough, and/or managers who are unable to come up to the expectations, and/or the lack of leadership at all the stages of management processions. This is why it is considered that the stronger the project management strategies are, the firmer the project structures get. Above is the ideal structure presented in Berkley PM Maturity Model (1997: pp.90). It has been considered in accordance to many models of project management that for proper project management strategies, phases and stages are a prerequisite. It can be made sure by managers that the product they are working on and delivering, meets their function at the end by using the structure of stages and phases as Saaksvuori and Immonen (2002: pp.208) state and clarify that: “It is very clear that your business strategy should have a huge impact on your product strategy, but in some cases also the other way around.” This is also helpful in making sure that the members are working under the project managers throughout the project are concentrating on a specified stage and then prepare themselves for the next stage. Thus, it has been believed by Woods (1973: pp. 258-261) that such stages and phases help in the creation of breakdowns of levels of performance, and the delivered products are in accordance to what is asked. Therefore, through the use of such procedures the project managers can have opportunities of making the things better that they lacked in the current stage, and omit them in the next phase. This not only means that the managers alone have to work on the project but in fact the levels are distributed amongst the board, the sponsors, and the stakeholders. Since the creation of the Channel Tunnel, the problems that it has faced have been considered redoubtable. This project has been measured to be in the hands of critical formulations, which is why it has not completely collapsed, but still continues to keep a history that is dramatic. Not even a single drawback in the engineering structure has been held responsible for the collisions in the project, which is why people think of it on a degree of uniqueness and remarkable significance. But again, the provision that this project has always been degraded in the eyes of the press and media instead of having provided with an accolade remains a sad fact. But the question that has been raised before, formulates that what are the reasons then that led to such a drastic down rift. The answer is in the evaluation that minor problems relating to endorsement, tenure, business management, marketable interests and regulations; have always been responsible. This is why it would be dumb of the authorities to ignore any of the lessons, which is why as mentioned above this paper follows a model that represents the better achievement of the completion of this project. Not only will this help in the evaluation of what could have been better but there is a need to present the appreciation for what has remained strengthened i.e. the engineering structure. As it has been mentioned before the most awful aspect that has always been focused upon is the estimation of 3.6 billion dollars that was made and over-passed by an amount of 15 billion dollars. But this is not the only problem that was faced by this tunnel after it was constructed. As formulated by almost every news channel as they flashed the stunners, another problem faced was the issue of depositing millions of cubic of chalk that was eradicated and needed to be deposited. This issue was named with the tag of ‘Spoil’, and its solution from the part of Britain was to dump it into the sea, which was another act considered as the wastage of minerals, along with the wastage of money, as on the other side they had to prevent the chalk from polluting the tunnel. This was done by creating a sheet metallic concrete wall for stopping the chalk from blending back in. Another problem that gained a wide amount of attention was the fire that started on board on the 18th of November, 1996. The fire was overwhelming to the passengers as the train was stopped in the middle of the tunnel without it being on either side of the countries. The raging of the fire could not be stopped but the passengers were rescued in haste. Both the train and the tunnel caused a wide range of damage meanwhile efforts were made to put it out. As soon as the issue of the immigration of illegal personnel was raised, unrest was created in the political and social environment of both the countries. On part of Britain, it was astonishing how the fear was of suffering from the common disease of rabies, which had always remained dead in the region. But this issue was settled too by the use of many security inhabitations for the prevention of this incursion. From the above issues that are major in nature and yet refer to the lack of formulations for planning instead of engineering drawbacks, it can be elucidated that not all of the project management tools were lacking if the work carried through the Channel Tunnel project is analyzed stately. It has been certified that a large number of tools are used for project management during construction. Thus, for the initiation of a plan, such tools, techniques, and processes have now become an essential discipline. This has been considered necessary to make sure that a plan opens; it controls and closes on such a structure that it is applauded for and not just worked up against. This is why many corporate organizations have realized and adapted various models for project management in order to make sure the business environment that is rapidly changing isn’t left out due to minor drawbacks. Along with this, it has been specified that such models are helpful in assessing the maturity levels of workers that are formulating the project, even though with the passage of time a complexity is seen in their production. As Bell (2007: pp.83) defines this procedure: “Recruitment is an important and accepted means of increasing numbers of qualified applicants from diverse background”. Thus, after the above mentioned problems, what needs to be evaluated is the model of project management that would have helped the project formulation in a better manner. The model that has been represented by the image provided above is based on the ideology of Berkley who presented the foundation of various stages for this process. In accordance to this ideology, it has been presented that in any project structuring, the obligation of this model is to unite processes of project management and bring together various stages that are a target of diversion and swerve. It is also ensured by this project that the managers are working functionally on the coordination of different commencing stages. Hence, in accordance to this project, the bottom line is, that success of any project that processes lies in the fact that its managers need to utilize all the techniques and strategies. Thus, after the evaluation of the above presented model, what needs to be put forth is the fact that the project management strategies that were carried out by the managers of the Channel Tunnel project were also appraisable. The major strategies that were looked deeply upon by the managers of the Channel Tunnel project and have been recognized include some major techniques of project integration. Even though the aspects of time management, cost management, and risk management were failed to be controlled, yet it was made sure than none of the aspects that were worked properly upon were left to drown. It was necessary for the project managers to keep in mind various aspects of project control and integration but again many of them were still left unattended due to which, not only engineering problems but also other issues cropped up. The aspects of project management that could have been worked upon for integration include time, risk and influence management, and assessment. If the managers of the project had ensured coordination on all levels of the structuring, this would have helped in gaining effective uniting techniques that lead towards the success of any development. For the fact that there was a need to make sure that any such problem that could have messed up the cost estimations should have been eliminated; it can be stated that the Channel Tunnel project failed to do so. The managers should have ensured in accordance to Berkley’s model that stipulated the project to be completed in the provided budget. Even though it is a fact that at some points the cost management became crucial for the managers, but had they divided their structuring in stages and phases, they could have made it possible to control the charges. On the other hand it was also necessary for the managers of the Channel Tunnel project to keep in mind the risk management strategies as they commenced because according to Paul A. Rosenberg (2001: n.pg) “The operations manager is probably the second-in-command and, hopefully, a partial owner.” Thus, in accordance to Berkley’s model, the issues that cropped up due to financial cracks and other incidents could have been avoided if the risk management strategies were made strong. This could have only been possible by identifying, analyzing, and responding to the risk factors that mounted in the beginning, and only if the working was divided into stages. This has been considered by the fact that as managers commence through the developmental stages of a project, their certainty regarding resistance to any risks for issues leads them into forming a cycle for risk management. This way all sorts of risks are identified through the management authorities as they respond to them and control them. On the other hand when it comes to the assessment of time management, the same stages presented by Berkley’s model should have been applied for reduced extension. Therefore, this model of project management not only would have helped the workers of the Channel Tunnel project build a tunnel in accordance to what was asked, but also it could have made it possible for the managers to put it forth in time, on cost, and with control over all of its aspects. Donald R. Brown (2006: n.pg) states that “In most organizations there is a lot of untapped human potential. In an excellent, renewing organization, this potential can be released, resulting in personal growth for the individual.” Even though the major challenges that came forth during its structuring and construction were handled with intensive thought by the managers, yet the required definition, sequences, time and cost estimation and control management lacked unity and coherence. Therefore through the above mentioned propositions, I can put forth that to embark in the era of research and study of globalization and to understand project management skills and their operation, I am constantly pondering how this paper will be relevant to the professionals of the managers of the previous epoch of projects; who spend their entire careers in providing organizations the best of the strategies and techniques for formulations. Hence, here I will be able to launch my research in the field of the improvement of strategies for future projects. References Bell, M.P., 2007. Diversity in organizations. Ohio, South-Western Cengage Learning. Brown, D.R., 2006. An experiential approach to organization development. Delhi, Pearson Education. Kwak, Y.H. and Ibbs, C.W., 1997. Project management process maturity (PM)2 model. [Online] Available at: < http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~ibbs/yhkwak/pmmaturity.html> [Accessed 15th March, 2012]. Kwak, Y.H. and Ibbs, C.W., 2002. Project management process maturity (PM)2 model. Journal of Management in Engineering, 18(3), pp.150-155. McLaughlin, R., 1997. Channel Tunnel: Engineering vision, project inception, business outcome. IET Conference Publications, 433, pp.71-80. Pompee, P.J., 2012. Channel Tunnel project overview. [Pdf] Available at: . Rosenberg, P.A. (2001). Successful electrical contracting. Quincy, National Fire Protection Association. Saaksvuori, A. and Immonen, A., 2002. Product lifecycle management. 3rd ed. Germany, Springer. Wood, A.M.M., 1973. The Channel Tunnel project. The Geographical Journal, 139(2), pp.258-261. Vickerman, R.W., 1987. The Channel Tunnel: Consequences for regional growth and development. Regional Studies, 21(3), pp.187-197. Read More