Proactive advice helping to deliver the project on time and $60 million under budget.
The Situation
The Sydney Desalination Plant at Kurnell comprises a seawater desalination plant, seawater intake and seawater concentrate outlet and associated infrastructure. It uses reverse osmosis technology to remove salts and other impurities from seawater to produce drinking water.
Water from the desalination plant at Kurnell is pumped into Sydney’s water distribution system through a pipeline from Kurnell, across Botany Bay to Kyeemagh. The plant will produce 250 megalitres of water per day (ML/d) – approximately 15% of Sydney’s needs, and can be easily modified to produce 500 ML/d if necessary.
Approach
Advisian was engaged in a number of roles since project inception including risk management, review of contract strategies, procurement strategies, funding and delivery strategies and cost reviews.
We were appointed to provide Contract Management Services and other specialist services for the Design & Construct (D&C) Contract of the Sydney Desalination Project.
The scope of works generally consisted of:
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Managing and administering the terms of the D&C Contract on behalf of Sydney Water under the direction of Sydney Water’s Representative
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Managing and coordinating interfaces and communications between Sydney Water, the Independent Verifier and the Contractor in relation to the verification of the Contractor’s compliance with the requirements of the D&C Contract
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Initially managing the operation and maintenance contract
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Managing the two-year defect correction and proving period (2010 to 2012).
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Managing and coordinating the interfaces and communications between Sydney Water, the contractor (Blue Water – a joint venture between John Holland and Veolia Water) and other stakeholders including authorities, the community, separate contractors and other project participants
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Initially managing the operation and maintenance (O&M) contract
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Managing the two-year defect correction and proving period (2010 to 2012)
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Advisian also provided risk management and related services to the Alliance that delivered the pipeline.
Our role was then expanded for the refinancing of the desalination plant to include preparation of documentation and managing the submission of thousands of documents for the electronic data room. During this period we also prepared an O&M contract management plan which was a suite of documents about how to administer the contract.
Results
The project was delivered on time and $60 million under budget.
The project won the Government Partnership Excellence Award at Infrastructure Partnerships Australia’s National Infrastructure Awards. The prestigious award recognised the significance of delivering the $1.9 billion project on time and $60 million under budget.
In addition to the ‘on time and under budget’ result for the project, the absence of claims indicated the true success of the massive project.
“Acting as Sydney Water’s representative, we took a proactive approach to managing the contractor, avoiding commercial claims and ensuring any expenditure of the provisional sums and contingencies was minimised.”
David Beckett, Advisian Assignment Principal.
