Right team key to success

Traffic on the Puhoi - Warkworth Rd Photo / Supplied

Large Government-funded infrastructure projects that got the green light a few years earlier than expected mean engineering firms such as Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) have to work far more efficiently than before.

Richard Hancy, a client manager at the firm says some of the projects that were on the Government's 10 to 20-year list of things to look at are now under way as part of National's economic stimulus initiatives. Among the schemes SKM is working on is the proposed motorway to link Puhoi with Warkworth in Rodney.

Construction work on the estimated $1.2b to $1.5b project is due start in 2014 and is expected to be completed in 2022. When it's finished it will improve the state highway network from the existing Northern Gateway toll road at Titfords Bridge in the south to Wellsford in the north. Bypasses will be built around Warkworth and Wellsford.

One of the country's seven designated roads of "national significance", SKM's work on what has been called the Puhoi project includes a 15-month investigation to report on engineering issues and the environmental impact. This is being done ahead of the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) applying for resource consent for the highway. The report will be delivered next year.

Tommy Parker, NZTA's state highways manager for Auckland, says a key part of the investigation work will be looking for opportunities that enable it to deliver "this important piece of infrastructure as quickly as possible The new highway is going to be built through some difficult and challenging country," he says. "And a lot of information and data is needed before we can decide on the best options for constructing it."

Bringing projects such as these forward, says Hancy, means the companies involved have to move fast, draw on the best people possible and have a strong emphasis on working as a collaborative team.

Hancy says it is forcing firms such as his to do things differently than they would have given a longer lead in time.

"What we are doing is drawing on our global team of people and deciding who are the best ones within the organisation to work on these projects," he says. "We are bringing together what we call 'best for project' teams and running a lot of activities in parallel to save time.

"Rather than thinking 'this is my role on this job' people are thinking 'how can I make this project succeed'.

"It is recognised now as being a hugely important factor when you want to move projects on quickly.

"We'll have planners working alongside engineers, geotechnical experts, designers and everyone very much working as a team to make rapid process. Clients are looking for firms that have a culture of partnering and of playing as a team."

Hancy says people with a diverse range of skills are working on the company's projects - with environmental experts sitting alongside economists, social experts and engineers at planning meetings.

"You end up with people with quite diverse views and all with quite different concerns. Those people have to listen to each other, understand other people's views and work together.

"These large projects, even though they are being done for the greater good, have to be managed carefully during the construction phase as a lot of disruption takes place - just look at the Newmarket viaduct and any of those other big jobs going on across Auckland.

He says clients - such as the NZTA - are looking for firms that will share the risk. But why should a contractor accept any extra risk just because a client has moved a major infrastructure project up the to do list?

"These projects are terrific projects to be involved in," he says. "They are generally challenging in terms of the engineering or the planning, they could be challenging on environmental fronts ... and from a professional perspective they are really world-leading projects that we want to be involved in."

Major projects such as these also help the firm build up the experience of its staff says Hancy.

"Some of the projects we are working on are quite unique," he says. "Our people are able to get experience in projects that in the past they'd have to go and work abroad to take part in - or they may not have got the opportunity at all."

Steve Hart