Example 1 – Coordination of Statutory Undertakers
In 2019 Fitzgerald delivered highway improvement works on the A38 in Birmingham and were appointed by Birmingham City Council to an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) stage whereby our team led the coordination of statutory diversion works, changing the programme phasing to enable numerous phases to run concurrently. Coordination meetings were held with the major statutory undertakers in order that their works could be assessed and incorporated into Fitzgerald’s construction programme, This value engineering exercise both de-risked the project by significantly reducing the likelihood of disruption and reduced the programme from 100 weeks to 70 weeks, saving over £300,000.
Example 2 – Preconstruction Early Planning to Create a More Efficient Construction Phase
Fitzgerald’s bus priority highways scheme for Birmingham City Council required extensive early involvement at preconstruction and our in-house Planning and Estimating team carried out design development and review workshops with our client WMCA to identify site constraints, identify risks, create efficiencies in the programme and provide cost certainty. Key measures undertaken within the ECI period included development of bespoke construction phasing plans and detailed traffic and pedestrian management plans, as well as the creation of a realistic construction delivery programme, the early identification of site compound locations and defined material distribution strategies at each site location.
Of particular importance was early liaison with individual stakeholders together with other interested and affected parties including QE Hospital Trust Estates Dept, BCC, TFWM and local business communities through the Chamber of Commerce
The team had early integration of specialist supply chain partners to highlight potential design and delivery issues (i.e. Traffic signals (Siemens Traffic Controls Ltd) to ensure that the proposed design was fully integrated with BCC current design.
Compilation of a detailed advance utility investigation strategy was beneficial to physically investigate the location and depth of both known and uncharted services and incorporate the information obtained into the design. This resulted both the development of a comprehensive delivery programme together with a reduction in client expenditure in existing utility service protection and diversion works