The New Perth Bunbury Highway
THE CHALLENGE
The New Perth Bunbury Highway (NPBH) is one of Western Australia’s most significant
infrastructure projects. The NPBH involves design and construction of 70.5 kilometres
of dual carriageway, of which 32 kilometres will be constructed to freeway standard.
The remaining 38 kilometres will initially be built as a rural highway with the
option to upgrade it in the future as traffic demands increase. Altogether, the
highway includes five interchanges, ten intersections and 19 bridges.
In September 2006, Southern Gateway Alliance (SGA) was formed to design, construct
and deliver the NPBH. The alliance consists of Leighton Contractors, WA Limestone,
GHD and Main Roads Western Australia. Construction commenced in December 2006 with
the full length of the highway scheduled to open by December 2009
THE APPROACH
For an infrastructure project the size and scale of the NPBH, a centralised document
management system was needed to capture the documentation, workflows and communication
exchanges. To meet this need, SGA began using the Incite Project Collaboration platform
in December 2006. Incite is fully web-based and is therefore accessible anywhere,
anytime via an Internet browser, requiring no additional investment in hardware
or software by users.
SGA uses Incite to track all QA plans, quality control records and to make sure
the project team has access to the latest drawings and design information. There
are 350 active users of Incite across the project and 5,656 users who have had some
interaction with the system, usually through receiving an email or message.
Scott Frazer, Systems Manager with SGA explained how the system is used. "Incite
is set up in our project within three areas. We have project documents which are
our filing structure for document control, then we have a QA section which comprises
all our notices and registers and then we have our design area through which all
of the designer’s drawings, specifications and other documents pass."
"To give you an example of the sheer number of documents Incite holds, just within
our design document register we have at this stage 5,836 drawings, reports, design
position papers and specifications. We have 4,470 construction lots, active or closed
within the system and in the project documents section, which is the document control
area, we have 38,400 documents on the system."
Incite is also used to maintain the project’s quality records. As Scott explained,
"I’m in charge of looking after the quality management system and we also liaise
with the safety manager and the environmental manager to make sure all the systems
comply with the international and Australian standards for those areas."
RESULTS
Scott discussed the benefits Incite that has provided. "The primary benefit from
our point of view is that construction engineers can look at the design documents
with the confidence that they’re going to see the latest version of any drawing.
They then relate that to a construction Lot on the project. The construction Lot
can then be used as the reference point for a Request For Information (RFI), and
it all links. By being able to link all that together, we can prove a flow and can
then quite easily upload all the documentation for that Lot to prove compliance
and everything’s tracked within the system."
"This was a big difference over the previous system. Previously we would have to
maintain hard copy files. We still maintain hard copy files but previously the hard
copy file would be the only record. So, by doing it this way we’ve got it all on
a system ready to provide easy access to multiple users simultaneously. When the
client wants it at the end of the job, we can easily package it up to them and issue
it out."
For the design section of the platform, we can list out the design criteria, the
design Lots that they’ve raised and link them back to our construction Lots. Everything
we need is within the system."
The reporting function within Incite has been a key benefit as well for the overall
management of the project. As Scott explained, “I can break down reporting and quickly
tell what the status is of any part of the project. We have three construction zones
here for controlling the works. We have highway construction, freeway construction
and structures. So I can produce a report, for example, on construction Lots specific
for the highway, specific for the freeway and specific for structures. I can send
that to the Zone Manager or the section managers and they can see exactly where
they’re up to in terms of close out of Lots. A lot of the time, that would have
been simply paperwork, so it’s dotting theI’s and crossing the T’s. But it has to
be done, so this gives them an idea of where they’re up to, so that we don’t get
to the end of the job with a mad rush on paperwork.” He continued, “The fact that
I can use Incite to do all this within minutes is invaluable."
For more information on the New Perth Bunbury Highway visit: http://www.sgalliance.com.au