Background

The South Road Superway includes the creation of a 4.8 kilometre non-stop, north-south transport corridor between the Port River Expressway and Regency Road. It also includes construction of a 2.8 kilometre elevated roadway. The project is part of The Australian Government’s $500 million commitment towards the upgrade of South Road, providing $406 million to the project, in partnership with the South Australian Government’s Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure (DTEI).

As the Independent Reviewer, Davis Langdon and AECOM will manage and control independent review of design of the South Road Superway Project through the design of the D&C phase of the project and certification of the completed design. During the construction phase of the project Davis Langdon and AECOM are responsible for conducting surveillance of constructed works. AECOM is a global provider of professional technical and management support services to a broad range of markets, including transportation, facilities, environmental, energy, water and government.

The Challenge

The independent reviewer is the chief quality assurer for the government during design, construction, testing and commissioning the road. This means its systems and processes need to be transparent, robust and have their own in-built quality control points. The Independent Verifier faces several risks in the selection of a system to support its processes. Stakeholder communications can vary greatly as the project progresses and the need for quick responses to press releases, site investigations and other client information requests is paramount. Users of the system are from multiple organisations, a complex system that required significant levels of training will lead to restiance and the creation of shadow systems being used with a resulting loss of transparency. The key to reducing resistance is for the tool to help support record management workflows for those on the ground. This then enables a simpler document control model to be implemented as it can be leveraged from the existing records already entered.

The contract for this particular deployment was also very complicated hence making the financial management of their fee as the Independent verifier on the $812m South Road Superway project very challenging.

The Solution

UniPhi takes workflow to a more practical level and creates transparency in documentation and records management that makes auditing business processes simple and efficient. This has enabled the IREA to focus on their key job of reviewing design documents, surveying construction and certifying progress.

Some of the key features utilised to meet document control demands are:

• Simple integration with construction companies document management system via web links and MS Outlook integration.

• Records management workflow where all the actions, documentation and responses to a design or construction package can be viewed in one screen

• Document version control, transmittal registers and digital sign off to ensure that the latest document is used for review

• Programme reporting on number of activities completed in a time period, witness reports and design reviews conducted etc.

In addition to the document and records management, The IV was able to utilise some of UniPhi's other features like timesheets and contract administration to track their overall fee on the job and measure overall project performance.

UniPhi tracks each team member's time and compares this to budget hours on the job, calculating discounts owed to the client and productivity bonuses based off contractual performance criteria. This is converted into Actual and Budget $ values using standard cost and revenue rates. UniPhi's reporting capability is then utilised to produce "S" Curves and other trend based financial reports for the IV management to review.

UniPhi’s document management and reporting capabilities enables streamlining of the document control process and internal workflows, meaning that inter-team communication is enhanced and service level agreements are easily met. UniPhi has been integrated with DTEI’s own system to make the process seamless and efficient.

An innovative product development, which is proving to be a huge benefit to the construction surveillance team, is the ability to capture photos and complete surveillance checklists on-site using Android Tablets directly into UniPhi. This has eliminated the need to scan checklists and photos back in the office enabling reviewers more time on-site and more time working with the contractors. Reviews can also be ‘live’, not having to be delayed by more paperwork.