Farndale's PM Lessons Learned
Three Gorges Dam
Three Gorges Dam is the largest dam in the world located on the Yangtze River in China. The dam has an installed capacity of 20.3 Megawatts, with construction costs alone totaling $26 billion. Construction began in 1994 and the dam body was completed in 2006, 1 year ahead of its scheduled delivery date. Lessons learned: in order to effectively control the schedule of a mega project, Phase Gates (Stage Gates) and major milestones must be implemented and severity of risks should be accurately evaluated to achieve the project’s success.
This is part of a series of blogs about recently completed projects, thanks to my University of Toronto Master of Engineering students for their much more detailed reports.
T-REX Project
T-REX (Transportation Expansion) Project in Denver, Colorado is a great example of a multi-modal transportation mega-project. The project included 17 miles of highway reconstruction and expansion, as well as 19 miles of new light rail transit lines along with 13 stations. The project was completed at a cost of $1.67 billion in 2006, under budget and on schedule. T-REX was delivered as a design-build contract which allowed flexibility and creativity in support of the project goals. Enormous efforts implemented in stakeholders management minimized the public inconvenience and positively contributed towards the project’s success.
This is part of a series of blogs about recently completed projects, thanks to my University of Toronto Master of Engineering students for their much more detailed reports.
Heathrow Airport T5
London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 project is considered one of the few successful megaprojects that were completed on schedule and on budget. Planning for T5 started in 1988. It is a multi-story airport terminal complex with a total area of 353,000 m2 and is designed to handle an annual passenger volume of 35 million. T5 was completed and inaugurated in early 2008, at a total construction cost of £4.2 billion. The project success revolutionized the projects management practices as to the introduction of the T5 agreement, the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and the prefabrication and modulation of building components.
This is part of a series of blogs about recently completed projects, thanks to my University of Toronto Master of Engineering students for their much more detailed reports.
Integrated Rapid Transit
Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) system is a bold initiative to transform the public transport sector over time in Cape Town, South Africa. The project consists of three main phases; Phase 1A, Phase 1B and Phase 2. Phase 1A started since 2007 and completed in the year of 2013. Phase 1A was to create a Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT) not only to improve the transportation performance in the City but also to meet the require of transportation during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The project achieved its success as a result of the good engagement with all stakeholders and the early involvement of cost control.
This is part of a series of blogs about recently completed projects, thanks to my University of Toronto Master of Engineering students for their much more detailed reports.
Confederation Bridge
Extending 12.9 km across the Northumberland Straight, The Confederation Bridge in Prince Edward Island is the world’s longest bridge over ice-covered waters. The project’s planning phase started in 1987 and in 1993 detailed design and construction started. The project was completed in 1997 at an approximate budget of $1 billion. The Confederation bridge project was delivered in a form of Public-Private Partnership. This project has been lauded as the most successful public-private partnership in Canadian History. Reasons of the project’s success included; the distribution and mitigation of financial risk and the well-drafted contract.
This is part of a series of blogs about recently completed projects, thanks to my University of Toronto Master of Engineering students for their much more detailed reports.