Project Management of the Channel Tunnel - Essay Example

?Project Management work Assignment Executive Summary The channel tunnel is a rail tunnel under the sea that connects United Kingdom and France. It is one of the longest undersea tunnels in the world. So for fast transportation through the tunnel channel, Shuttle wagons were designed to carry passengers. Eurotunnel being the owner of the Channel Tunnel had give TransManche Link (TML) to develop the channel tunnel. TML had give subcontracts to other companies to manufacture the Shuttle Wagons. The project was given very limited time. The company would incur huge loses if they cross the given deadline. The company was bound to finish the construction of the channel tunnel before a particular season to protect itself from heavy interest payments, liquidated damages and a number of other loses. The Channel Tunnel design, operation and construction needed the approval of Intergovernmental Commission (IGC). But obstructions were coming up due to certain issues in the channel design. The safety of the channel tunnel in terms of fire safety was still a lingering issue. The design parameter relating such problems were still uncertain. There were other problems related to delays in re-works and gaining IGC approvals on this matter. Eurotunnel declared that the delays were mainly due to the design of the fire doors of the rail shuttle wagons, as they were not meeting the safety guidelines. The changes in the design also led to a slow approval process, thus delaying the whole process of starting the channel tunnel and it also increased the cost of the company. Due to certain changes in the design, the other parts of designs were also modified accordingly and this increased the complexity of the product design. The work schedule prepared for developing the project got messed-up and the company had to pay extra compensation for additional work done on the designing of the shuttle wagon. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Project Background 4 Identification of project management related issues 5 Discussion and analysis 6 Conclusion 7 Reference 8 Introduction It is true that there is a vast difference between planning and implementation. This is very much reflected in the case of Shuttle wagons of channel tunnels that connects United Kingdom with France. The construction of the channel tunnel was going through a tight time schedule. Eurotunnel could not afford to delay the work as it had to incur huge loses of it. But the work got delayed due to the design problems of the Shuttle Wagons. The safety norms were very important as the channel tunnel was a 20 Km long enclosed tunnel under the sea. Fire accidents were very common in such situations. The IGC was responsible to evaluate the safety, security and environmental standards of the project. They found flaws in the design of the Shuttle wagon. Due to this fact, the project was getting delayed. The company had to again redesign its Shuttle by installing fire doors to secure the shuttle in times of fire accidents. The other changes in design led to modifications in other parts of the shuttle wagon. Eurotunnel, the owner of the channel tunnel had to incur extra cost and pay high interest due to such delays (Kirkland, n. d.). Project Background The Channel Tunnel was prepared keeping in mind the fire and the life safety issues. The designs of the channel tunnel and the shuttle wagon travelling through it were approved by the IGC. The channel tunnel comprised of two tunnels for shuttle wagons and in between these two tunnels there is a path or road mainly used for surveillance. These tunnels and the path are interconnected at three intervals and proper ventilation system was also there within the channel tunnel (Whitaker, n. d.). The shuttle wagon is the largest vehicle in the railway systems of the world. These shuttle wagons cover almost half of the tunnel space. The shuttle trains were about 776 m long and had 28 wagons and 2 locomotives. The shuttle wagons were manufactured by the Euroshuttle Wagons Consortium. These shuttle trains travel at a speed of about 140 km/hr. Such speed can cause changes in the external pressure. Apart from this, the channel tunnel is built below the English Channel. There was high risk of fire accidents within the tunnel. So these shuttles were manufactured using sophisticated equipments and systems (Kirkland, 1995, p. 191). Inter Governmental Commission was a body set by the governments of UK and France. They appointed bi-National Safety Authority to regularly monitor the safety standards while designing the shuttle wagons and the channel tunnel. Tunnelling between two countries below a water body was a challenging task. There was a major threat of weak ground due to water pressure from the sea above. The company Eurotunnel started the project in the year 1988 and it finally started in the year 1994. The company had to incur 80 percent more cost than the planned budget for the project. Identification of project management related issues When we are evaluating the drawbacks, the risks and the process of the project undertaken by Eurotunnel, we should also consider the approaches of project management for better identification of problem areas. Project management is a discipline that deals with managing, planning, controlling, leading and organising the resources of the company to achieve the specified goals. Projects are undertaken by deciding a specified time period. In fact time limits are set for every individual task. The proper management of stakeholders are very important for the successful completion of every project. The stakeholder analysis is done in order to win the support of other people for the project. It helps the project manager to identify those people or group of people who need to be won over for the successful completion of the project (Chinyio, 2010, p. 266). In the case of the channel tunnel project, the Eurotunnel was solely responsible for the construction of the project. Eurotunnel segregated the development of tunnels to a contactor and shuttle wagons to another sub-contractor. The stakeholders in this project were the government of the two countries, France and UK. They are the ones who would benefit from the project in terms of revenue and establishment of sophisticated transportation facility between two countries. The concept of project life cycle can be compared to such situation. The approach of project life cycle can be broken down into four stages: conceptualization, planning, execution and termination. In the first stage only the concept is developed and approved. The second stage includes the planning of the project in details. In this stage the project manager does the total planning, budgeting and scheduling tasks. In the third step the actual execution of the plans takes place and finally after the completion of the task undertaken, the project is terminated (Meredith, and Mantel, 2011, p. 148-149). The channel tunnel was a project which was designed and built by TML. Eurotunnel financed the project and the safety standards were set and regulated by IGC. So these were the stakeholders of this project who were involved in the project life-cycle. The concept was given shape by TML and its sub-contractors, the entire budgeting, planning and scheduling was done by Eurotunnel and the safety standards were regularly monitored by IGC. Eurotunnel had undertaken such a hi-tech project which was equally innovative and risky. So proper risk management planning had to be done. This tunnel was build below the sea, so there was great risk of water inflow while tunnelling. Moreover, it is an enclosed space below a huge water body. High-speed shuttle wagons would create huge external pressure. This entire factor may lead to fire accidents. So not only proper designing of the channel tunnel was important but also designs of shuttle wagons. The project got delayed as IGC detected issues with the fire doors in the shuttle wagon. Though Eurotunnel Company had to incur huge losses due to delay in schedules, but it was ensured that measures were taken to avoid accidents (Aman, 2006, p. 36) Discussion and analysis The channel tunnel project was designed and built by TML but financed by a company called Eurotunnel. Eurotunnel signed a construction contract with TML. Since Eurotunnel had to incur 80 percent more loss than their projected value, the British and the French government allowed Eurotunnel to run the channel tunnel shuttle wagon services for 55 years at a concession. This was an initiative taken by the government to help the company to repay its loans, interest and dividends to shareholders (Artemis Society International, 2007). There are various tools and techniques that project managers apply to complete the project within the allotted time schedule. The work breakdown structure can be a tool utilised in project management to better monitor the issues in the channel tunnel project. It is a tree structured tool which involves breaking down the tasks in the project in different sub-tasks (Haugan, 2002, p. 1-2). If it is seen from the point of view of the channel tunnel project, it can be said that Eurotunnel Company could have followed such techniques. Eurotunnel could have divided and sub-divided its task by forming teams within the company and also assigning important tasks to not only TML but also other contractors. TML was assigned the total task of designing and building the channel tunnel. It included various tasks to be performed. This may be another reason why the design of the shuttle wagon failed on the safety front. If Eurotunnel had assigned different contractors for different important activities they would not have incurred additional 80 percent costs due to which the company started running at heavy loss (Finnerty, 2011). Conclusion The channel tunnel project was the most innovative project that the world had ever seen. It was a tunnel that passed below the English Channel. The tunnel connected UK and France. Sophisticated shuttle wagons ran between the two countries through this tunnel. It also had a path in between which connected the two tunnels. The project was given to Eurotunnel Company. It was responsible for financing the project and proper development of the project. Eurotunnel assigned the task of designing and building the channel tunnel to TML. TML assigned sub-contractors under them to make shuttle wagons. Shuttle wagons had great speed and they exerted great external pressure. So it was necessary to design them keeping in mind the safety standards. There were major problems in the fire doors of the shuttle wagon due to which the government regulatory body responsible for monitoring the safety issues for channel tunnel. Disapproved the design and asked the company for modification in the fire doors. The company Eurotunnel was going through a tough phase because it had to bear huge losses if the company was not able to complete the project within the scheduled time. It was found that if Eurotunnel had followed certain project management techniques, it would have saved some money. The company could have followed a work break down method to divide its task among different contractors rather than just one, and then each task would have been accomplished in a much better way. Reference Aman, 2006. Tourist Places of Europe. New Delhi: Dreamland Publications. Artemis Society International, 2007. Direct Investment and the Chunnel. [Online]. Available at: < http://www.asi.org/adb/03/03/direct-investment-chunnel.html> [Accessed on May 24, 2012]. Chinyio, E. P., 2010. Construction Stakeholder Management. NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Finnerty, J. D., 2011. Project Financing: Asset-Based Financial Engineering. NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Glasspool, D., no date. Eurotunnel Tri-Bo Shuttle Locomotives. [Online]. Available at: [Accessed on May 24, 2012]. Haugan, G. T., 2002. Effective Work Breakdown Structures. NJ: Management Concepts. Kirkland, C. J., 1995. Engineering the Channel Tunnel. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis. Kirkland, C. J., no date. The Fire in the Channel Tunnel. [Pdf]. Available at: [Accessed on May 24, 2012]. Meredith, J. R. and Mantel, S. J., 2011. Project Management: A Managerial Approach. 8th ed. NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Whitaker, E. H., no date. Eurotunnel's Specification for Halon 1301 Replacement. [Pdf]. Available at: [Accessed on May 24, 2012]. Read More