In September 2018, D2 were asked to provide planning support for the delivery of the TWAO (Transport Works Act Order) application to support the proposed improvements to the railway between Huddersfield and Westtown (Dewsbury). The improvements include:
D2 supported the alliance by developing and maintaining a fully integrated P6 programme, which included activities relating to:
The final TWAO application was submitted on 31st March 2021, which ensured an Inquiry date in 2021, which keeps the wider project on schedule.
The very nature of developing the TWAO application, highlights a number of potentially delay inducing problems. This meant that developing and maintaining a meaningful programme was a challenge from the start.
One of the biggest challenges in the past 12 months (March 2020 – March 2021) was the Covid-19 restrictions applied in the UK. These restrictions meant that activities such as site surveys and public consultations were required to be re-considered. Clearly this had a significant impact on the programme, and a lot of work was involved in re-planning to ensure the submission date did not slip. This was achieved by breaking down the programme, reviewing line by line, ensuring durations and logic were correct, and making the necessary amendments. What this did, was produce a programme with very little float, and therefore meant the programme required close attention. To manage this, we increased the number of programme updates from once a month, to twice a month. We also held a weekly lookahead/look back sessions to ensure any slippages were highlighted as soon as possible, therefore giving us more time to apply mitigation.
From a scheme point of view, following the first round of consultations, 85% of respondents were supportive of the scheme.
The benefit of the D2 planning team providing planning support was their ability to ensure the programme of works were re-worked effectively and continually maintained to ensure a timely TWAO submission. All involved had access to the programme, and therefore had the ability to see what impacts they had on other disciplines. The planner was able to provide lookahead reports, which highlighted upcoming issues, meaning they could be resolved proactively, thus ensuring minimum slippages. The planner also managed critical and sub-critical activities to ensure the team knew where to focus their attentions, when resources were limited.
“David Crowe – ‘Teamwork’ in managing the West 3 TWAO programme”
March charter moment recognition from Mark Wroe (Planning and Project Controls Director)
