Partnering pays off

May Gurney picked up two prestigious awards at the sixth annual Highways Agency Major Project Conference, which was held on 24 April.

Both awards were for the £30m A11 improvement scheme at Attleborough in Norfolk, which comprises a new 3.3 mile two-lane dual carriageway, improvements to four junctions, and a new bowstring arch bridge for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.

The scheme, the first Highways Agency Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) project to be awarded in the East of England, was successfully opened ahead of programme and within budget in February 2007.

The whole process, from route announcement to opening, was carried out within a remarkably short four-year period - including the statutory process with a Public Inquiry, target cost agreement, detailed design and construction.

The submission for the awards was prepared by May Gurney on behalf of the project team - The Highways Agency, Hyder Consulting, Faber Maunsell and May Gurney.

The first award, Target Zero, was for completing more than 250,000 man-hours on the project without a RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) accident.

The second award, Journey Time Reliability During Delivery, covered the whole project - including the earlier ECI phases - and was presented for reducing the overall delivery time to 'open to traffic'.

Ewan Barr, Project Manager, collected the award on behalf of May Gurney and also gave a presentation to the conference explaining why the A11 project was so successful - largely as a result of developing working relationships and maximising the benefits of integrated working.

Richard Dean (pictured), May Gurney's Chief Operating Officer, said: "This tremendous achievement was all due to a collective, team-working approach. We have worked very hard to ensure that proper working relationships were founded from the outset and where problems arose we addressed these problems together as a team."

Ewan Barr added: "We were able to put together a team who not only knew each other, but had local knowledge and good relationships with the local community.

"We were able to refine our knowledge of what the public's key issues were and by the end of three Public Consultations and numerous meetings with stakeholders, we understood what was required to get the scheme through Public Inquiry with minimal objections. From the outset we could focus on identifying solutions rather than speculating about potential problems."

Such was the level of integrated working that during an external assessment of the project team by the Highways Agency, the assessor was unable to determine who each of the participants worked for.

Ewan Barr concluded: "This level of integrated working does not just happen. We all needed to make a committed and fundamental step away from the type of working associated with more adversarial forms of contract."