Eryl Surgery – Llantwitt Major Coastal & Vale University Health Board

The 26-week programme was a key objective for the client and required our Project Team to overcome several potential challenges to deliver the works to schedule. 

The works were undertaken in a live working environment, with the potential for disruption to NHS staff working within the building, and the general public. This required our experienced team to programme our works in line with these challenges, including allowing for out-of-hours working and controls to ensure that works adjacent to live areas were clearly signposted, segregated, and that the client was informed throughout. Measures to manage programme activities included:

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Measures to manage programme activities included:

• Briefing our suppliers of the Traffic / Access Management requirements and their expectations and conduct on site, ensuring their presence did not impact negatively on on-site activities.
• Ensuring our staff were prepared to work safely from induction, reinforced through regular toolbox talks and during daily site briefings. This included how to lay out signage, how to communicate effectively and their safeguarding responsibilities.  
• Using our project Communications Plan, through which Contracts Manager Paul Jones established clear and regular communication with key members of the client team to inform them of progress, risks and mitigations and to gain approval for access to working areas.

A key challenge during this project was related to associated building and civil engineering works, which were to be completed over winter. During that time, there was substantial rainfall, which prevented works from being completed and risked key delivery milestones from being achieved. Our ability to draw on competent locally available operatives allows us to increase labour to allow certain tasks to be completed in parallel, which would bring the delivery back in line with time requirements.

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Through regular collaborative programme reviews with the client, we suggested the change to resource levels, which allowed the project milestones to be delivered to programme.

Using our risk management strategies, ongoing communication with the client, extensive experience of adapting our working practices to working in sensitive environments, we delivered the 26-week programme to budget and schedule.