Challenges and Solutions
The main project challenges were ensuring communication and management between each of the numerous parties. Therefore, weekly progress meetings were set up to ensure key members of the team were kept informed of issues.
The challenges were overcome by clearly defining the roles and responsibilities between the various parties and there was also an overall focus on delivering as one team with the freedom to call, discuss and collaborate at short notice to develop solutions to any challenges that arose. Having the trust between each of the parties ensured that ideas and individual objectives of each party could be fully understood and openly discussed and streamlined the way decisions could be made.
Due the nature of the temporary nature of the scheme some community stakeholder engagement was required, albeit not a formal consultation as would be used for a permanent scheme. The temporary footway alignment benefited from the COVID-19 response barrier measures that were already in place along the same proposed alignment as this gave the designers and stakeholders confidence in the tried and tested alignments. The scheme itself is designed to be removed and amended with minimal impact on the existing footway or carriageway which by its nature will allow for amendments in response to any future concerns that may arise.
The FM Conway site team were able to offer a flexible approach to the location they were working in which enabled the team to easily switch to an alternative section of a scheme when issues such as emergency utility works conflicted with the scheme. This enabled the team to remain on programme working towards the overall deadlines.
A further challenge was the HVM requirements for the created public spaces, which were needed to be clearly defined form the onset. The process between the need to protect the pedestrians whilst widening the footways and providing greater social distancing space was an iterative process, especially due to the requirement for the scheme to be implemented as quickly as possible. This scheme design and overall collaboration also took place during periods of remote working across all organisations.
Due to the pace of the scheme there was a reliance on historical data which had the potential to differ from actual site conditions. This was overcome by a live time design and delivery collaborative approach with information flowing in both directions to enable updates and amendments to be made with no delays to the overall project.
Working amid a global pandemic, health and safety on the scheme was also paramount and was monitored throughout the project with focus on COVID-19. Both in office and site staff stayed up to date on all the latest advice from the FMC SHEQ team. Health and safety was also the first item on the weekly Progress Meeting to help keep it at the forefront of people’s minds.
