26.01.18
Ordsall Chord: Setting the benchmark
Mike Heywood, project director for Network Rail and Ordsall Chord alliance manager, reflects on the fantastic success of the innovative scheme, which now proudly sits at the heart of Manchester as an iconic addition to the city’s transport infrastructure.
After many years of hard work, I am delighted to see the Ordsall Chord complete. It is a fantastic achievement and to see the iconic network arch bridge adding to the Greater Manchester skyline makes me extremely proud.
Throughout the project, thousands of men and women have contributed to the delivery of this major section of the Great North Rail Project and every single one of them can take great pride in not only what has been achieved, but how it has been achieved.
As director of the alliance, which has involved Network Rail, Skanska BAM, Amey Sersa, Siemens and many other organisations, this project has been really challenging from a delivery perspective.
The challenges?
- Truly multi-disciplinary in nature;
- Working at a site that is so steeped in history;
- A difficult TWA process;
- The new chord line spanning a big area like the Manchester inner ring-road and River Irwell, as well as having to tie into the existing Victorian arches;
- Renewing track, signalling and OLE on this side of central Manchester, and doing it whilst maintaining an operational railway;
- Installing the world’s first asymmetrical rail bridge.
So with all these considerable challenges, how did we make it a success? I believe there were three key steps which helped make building the Ordsall Chord a real triumph for all involved.
Scheme development
The first point was undoubtedly having the right amount of time before any soil was touched to develop the scheme.
Whilst we spent just over two to three years in the detail design and construction stage, prior to that we spent many years working the options, locking down the scope and obtaining the consents. That upfront investment in the development was vital.
Parsons Brinkerhoff, who was involved during those early stages and who worked alongside a great NR project, route sponsor, and RAM team, was crucial. This included a brilliant consents & legal team who led the TWA submission, presented the case in the courts, and successfully navigated us through the well-documented legal challenges.
Contracting model
Second item was the contracting model that was adopted. I passionately believe the pure alliance model was exactly right for this scheme.
This was a single target cost and integrated delivery programme that all alliance partners had bought into, with a single shared risk.This meant we win together or lose together.
All of the management are united in the opinion we would not have made it here today without that approach. We spent all our energy resolving problems collectively as opposed to blaming each other. The partnership between Network Rail, Skanska BAM, Siemens, Amey, Severfield and the designers, AECOM Mott MacDonald and Balfour Beatty, worked extremely well.
I would also like to recognise the role of the wider supply chain. The alliance awarded over 200 sub-contracts, 94 of those within 25-mile radius of this site – and 62% of them were SMEs.
Great people working collaboratively
The third and final point is undoubtedly the brilliant people and teams we have had working on supporting the project.
The industry does have a fantastic skill base, with the knowledge and ingenuity to solve any problem that arises.
The key has been to enable these individuals and teams to get on with what they are good at and to work together as opposed to operating in silos or against each other.
We have absolutely worked as one team.Behaviours have been key to that and we selected suppliers on that basis.
We have also been very fortunate on this project to have stakeholders who have been incredibly engaged and supportive.Manchester City Council and Salford City Council have backed the TWA and helped facilitating road closures.
The train and freight operating companies have played vital roles in helping develop the access strategies.
We would not have delivered this job without their help.
The future is bright
From an engineering perspective, we have all achieved something quite brilliant; but, more importantly, it will benefit passengers and the economy for future generations.
The chord will not only connect Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Victoria as well as create new links to Manchester Airport from the north, but will help boost the local economy. With this increased connectivity, there will be higher passenger footfall, meaning a chance for new businesses to set up and grow and improved job prospects in the region.
I truly believe the model we adopted has set the benchmark for many alliances going forward in the future and if it is, I expect they will achieve the same success as we did with the Ordsall Chord.
For more information
W: www.networkrail.co.uk