Northwest Community Campus is a new build educational facility by Dumfries & Galloway Council. Construction of the new building was due for completion in July 2018, in time for an August school commencement. Just prior to certification of completion, some quality issues arose with elements of the construction. This meant the school could not open until remedial works were completed.
In light of these events a Root Cause Analysis of the issues was commissioned by the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT). A copy of the Root Cause Analysis report can be accessed through this link .NW Campus – Root Cause Analysis.
Learning Lessons…
SFT reflected on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the report which were based on the specific circumstances and contractual arrangements of the Northwest Community Campus project. These were combined with work on construction quality in other areas and some more, broadly applicable, lessons learned were crafted. A copy of the SFT paper can be accessed here NW Campus – Learning Lessons.
The SFT paper states that whilst not exhaustive, the lessons learned are intended as a better-practice guideline for those involved in the commissioning and delivery of new public buildings and significant refurbishments and SFT would encourage their adoption.
SFT reflected on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the report which were based on the specific circumstances and contractual arrangements of the Northwest Community Campus project. These were combined with work on construction quality in other areas and some more, broadly applicable, lessons learned were crafted. A copy of the SFT paper can be accessed here NW Campus – Learning Lessons.
The SFT paper states that whilst not exhaustive, the lessons learned are intended as a better-practice guideline for those involved in the commissioning and delivery of new public buildings and significant refurbishments and SFT would encourage their adoption.
Lessons Learned for Future Projects
Overall Project Management
- The project owner must ensure that those with a key role on a construction project have the required skills and experience, as well as the resource capacity and required authority. Reference could be made to the Baseline Skillset tool developed by SFT. See the Baseline Skillset Guidance tool through this link – Baseline Skillset
- Maintaining continuity of key personnel on a project is important for implementing appropriate leadership and delivery of design and construction quality.
- The approach to managing assurance of quality by designers and contractors must be interrogated by commissioning authorities as part of the selection criteria leading to an appointment / contract award.
- Time allocations in project programmes should be sufficient, be based on a risk assessment, and be well managed.
- Testing and commissioning activities should never be compromised
- Key performance measures for delivering quality management should be agreed early, with a focus on those critical elements which impact on the health and safety of building users.
- All parties involved in a construction project should avoid transferring possession when the asset is known to have significant defects.
- Robust and project specific construction quality management plans should be in place and reviewed by all relevant parties before construction commences on site. Regular reviews of these plans should cover the availability of appropriate resources to implement the plans.
- A comprehensive record needs to be kept of all validation signoffs and inspections of work. Supporting such records with photographic evidence would be beneficial. There are new technologies available to assist with this and their use is encouraged. SFT’s Technology Navigator includes references to evidence capture technology. (Click on this link to go to the website – Technology Navigator.) Full adoption of these technologies will require accessibility by all those directly involved.
- The organisation that is responsible for certifying completion of the works should at an early stage establish a set of completion criteria and schedule all the documents and inspection certificates required as evidence before the project can be handed over.
Roles and Responsibilities
- There should be a clear understanding across all parties involved in a construction project of the roles and responsibilities regarding the delivery of design and the quality of workmanship as set out in the contract documents. Establishing clear lines of authority and reporting is essential.
- A documented plan should set all of this out clearly and include, for example: who designs which elements of the project and to what level of detail; the role and responsibility for design management and coordination; the role and responsibility for design review and approval of design, particularly for elements designated for specialist contractor design; the role and responsibility for inspection and validation of the works as construction progresses
- The task of preparing a design responsibility matrix is very important in all of this. And there are critical areas of risk to be considered when deciding who is best placed to take on the responsibility of key elements of design, particularly around those aspects which relate to health and safety of building users.
The Development and Management of Design
- No element of work on a project should be undertaken without there being an approved design and specification in place. This is particularly important for the specification of fixings.
- Those with lead design responsibility should ensure that any remaining design to be detailed by specialist sub-contractors is completed, documented, and checked by those with appropriate skills and responsibility. Likewise, those specialist sub-contractors with design responsibility should ensure their design is completed and checked before they proceed with installations.
- Coordination of all elements of a project’s design is a key role for the lead designer, which needs to be exercised well.
On-Site Execution and Supervision of Workmanship
- There needs to be an appropriate level of supervision of works on site by main contractors, with increased attention to the management of quality of workmanship.
- Those supervising construction works on site should ensure that the necessary information is available to build each element and that this is communicated to the site operatives.
- There should be a role for designers in carrying out site inspections and this should be agreed prior to appointment.
Quality Assurance
- Commissioning authorities and delivery partners should deploy adequate inspection and assurance activities and ensure designers and contractors are complying with their own quality management plans including any agreed sign offs of completed elements of work.
- Consideration should be given to having standalone quality management meetings (separate from the regular project management meetings) during the construction phase. There should be representation at these meetings from sub-contractors and designers as well as the client and main contractor. Checks on the operation of the various assurance and inspection mechanisms should be reviewed as well as discussing any reported non-conformances.