Professional services

Transport for London Civils & Tunnels Framework

Under our Civils and Tunnels Framework for TfL we delivered approximately 15 commissions over a 3.5-year period under professional services contracts, including short PSC studies, pricing exercises and design commissions through to fully developed RIBA Stage E Detailed Designs and Pre-construction planning and services.

Challenge

To deliver designs for Stratford Western entrance and Leyton Step-Free Access and capacity enhancement we had to:

• Develop the design in stages to meet very specific funding limits which required continuous re-assessment and market testing to ensure the affordability criteria was met and the design refined accordingly.
• Meet the budget and ensure requirements and the specification were ‘locked down’, with robust change control to prevent scope creep.
• Ensure Client confidence in the construction phase via a robust delivery strategy including the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) of the construction staff during the design phase to finalise pre-construction documents and advance detailed planning for the site works.

Solution

For the various commissions, a project team was priced at agreed framework rates to deliver the projects to an agreed programme, with costs recovered against timesheets at the pre-agreed rates. As the Client considered these to be development projects, the team worked very closely with TfL to provide funding advice to enable robust business cases to be developed for the follow-on construction phase.

Benefits

Overall, the ECI / PSC works delivered a programme of projects which enabled the establishment of a core delivery team providing a consistent approach, leading to delivery efficiencies, particularly with the Client engineering team.

HS2 N1/N2 Main Works Civils

Challenge

The TAYWOOD Professional Services team were asked to work with the HS2 SL8 team to develop construction methodologies for several structures, including underbridges, overbridges, retaining structures and an inverted siphon.

Solution

Detailed methodologies were developed internally and with key subcontractors / suppliers and agreed with the site team for them to implement. As and when requested, the team also managed production of detailed temporary works designs (by TAYWOOD’s Technical services team) to support the agreed methodology.

A key area was the Streethay Bridge deck move, where the TAYWOOD Professional Services team developed the site team’s concept into a detailed technical solution for the move, including coordination with specialist suppliers, permanent works designers (including permanent design changes to suit the methodology), and the site team, before managing and delivering all temporary works designs for the scheme.

The team also provided methodology and temporary works design input to the Fulfen Wood bridge move. Both of these bridge moves can be seen in the video clip here.

Benefits

The flexibility and wide-ranging expertise in the team allowed us to work with the project to deal with changing priorities and a wide variety of technical issues. The team were able to take significant sections of work and develop them with near independence, thus freeing up the site resources to focus on other priority matters.

Review of Local Authority HIF Projects

Challenge

TAYWOOD Professional Services were engaged by Turner & Townsend to support their framework for Homes England evaluating Local Authority project proposals under the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) to assess their financial deliverability.

Solution

Our team provided an assessment on the maturity of design development, construction methodology, construction sequencing and overall buildability. In addition, a detailed analysis of proposed programme structures and associated durations were also undertaken.

Benefits

The key to success in the programme assessment was the evaluation of the defined critical and sub-critical paths within the schedule and the assessment of the overall float and time risk allowance within the programme. A further comparison was also carried out on the alignment between the programme and float and the associated project risk register. Our team assessed productivities, risk allowances and overall procurement strategy proposed by the local authorities to provide overall confidence in the deliverability of the various schemes.

Multiconsult - Wind Farm Gravity Bases

Challenge

TAYWOOD Professional Services were approached by Multiconsult, a Norwegian design consultancy specialising in marine offshore infrastructure to develop proposed options for the manufacture of 176 Gravity Base Structures (GBS) for a UK windfarm in development.

Solution

The team were required to look at all aspects of the GBS construction including:

• Port selection, design and upgrade
• Material supply and logistics
• Slipform vs jump form construction
• Post tensioning strategy
• Haulage around the port and GBS delivery to quay side
• Environmental and ecological considerations to support licensing and consent applications
• Unit cost and productivity

The outcome of the detailed review over an 8-month period was a robust Construction Method Report outlining all aspects of the construction process, sufficient for Multiconsult’s Client to select a preferred delivery option.

Benefits

The benefits to the project included:

• 4 week saving on each unit production against the Client’s baseline (22 weeks vs 26 weeks)
• 20% reduction in required port land area (due to our slip formed design)
• Significant cost benefit per unit
• Health and Safety benefits due to redesign of post-tensioning (we limited working at height)

Horsley WTW

Challenge

TAYWOOD Professional Services were engaged to support and define the construction methodology for a proposed Chlorine Contact Tank within an operational water treatment works.

Solution

The proposed tank was to be constructed within a constrained site footprint, whilst maintaining operations of the existing facility. TAYWOOD Professional Services developed a construction methodology, construction sequence, programme and estimate for the proposed Chlorine Contact Tank. During development of the construction methodology and programme, the integration between the testing and commissioning of the new tank with the existing works was a critical factor. This included the development of a series of “Hot Tap” proposals and temporary shutdowns of the existing facility.

Benefits

The team were able to develop hour-by-hour programmes for the shutdowns which were critical to assessing the overall buildability and risk profile of the proposed testing and commissioning strategy.

NZT Teesside – BP Gas and Gathering Pipeline

Challenge

TAYWOOD Professional Services were engaged by a Tier 1 designer to support in the constructability assessment of a series of pipejacks and HDD crossings through Pre-FEED design development. This included a crossing of the River Tees and an associated Landfall for a proposed Carbon Capture Pipeline.

Solution

We developed design solutions and delivered a quantitative and qualitative assessment of each option considering ground risk, constructability, 3rd party stakeholder engagement, product pipe installation, overall programme sequencing and marine risk to provide a road map for development of the FEED options.

Benefits

The optioneering included development of a comprehensive comparative risk, cost and schedule matrix allowing informed option selection for the development of the FEED design.