Process

A little while back, our team was out on site and finished our planned task ahead of schedule. Flights out of site were booked solid so, instead of sitting around playing tiddlywinks, we agreed a useful job would be to gather up all the high potential incident reports (HPIs) and independently confirm that all agreed corrective actions (CAs) had been closed out. To some people’s surprise, (but not mine), we found that while most CAs had been closed out, some were only partiall

Mobilising a civil construction project is typically a frenetic period. For the lead manager, that’s compounded by countless people vying for their time. When that start-up time comes, most firms have a mobilisation checklist or readiness-to-proceed document. These can be excellent tools. They set out what needs to be done to satisfy client and/or company requirements, based on typically generic principles. There’s no value in making these documents larger or more cumbersome

It’s a rare project that can be built without the constructor asking the designer some questions. These questions – typically called technical queries (TQs) or requests for information (RFIs) – are important and, while it seems the writing of these should be straightforward, there are a few key qualities that influence their value. Three types of RFIs Before we get to those, at CEA, we say there are generally three types of RFIs: The overlooking constructor RFI The forgetf

We’ve recently been out in the Tanami Desert helping manage a road upgrade. While it would be tempting to think that 280km north west of Alice Springs you can get away with building a sub-standard road…that’s not the case. Every day, it is a lifeline for the communities and local mine that haul in bulk fuel and other supplies. One of the most critical aspects of any road is the pavement. For this project, the team had to use a natural gravel as the cost of importing a quarry

I know your mum always told you to do your best, but she was wrong. Sometimes you have to do just enough for it to be ‘a better job’. Let me explain. When it comes to earthmoving, there are some fundamental rules: you can’t make money with a dozer in reverse, low fuel burns are a reason to worry and, most importantly, the key to making money is to minimise the energy you use. What’s the easiest way to minimise energy use when constructing earthworks? Do less work. Seems simp

Inspection and test plans (ITPs) are a ubiquitous part of nearly all civil projects these days. The question is, are they useful? One of our observations, drawn from many sites and clients, is that ITPs have morphed into something more like a work instruction or process flow. People have tried to make ITPs the ‘everything’ document and, when that happens, they rapidly become a ‘nothing’ document. In many cases, they’ve become so large, convoluted and all-encompassing they are