Capital projects
The Capital Projects Team is responsible for the delivery of all
major capital work programmes, from inception to occupation,
throughout the county. This includes all new buildings, alteration
and adaptation works and development advice for the disposal and/or
acquisition of land. The department offers advice, supports, and
facilitates the delivery of projects in the following areas:
- design options studies;
- cost and programme exercises;
- risk assessments;
- procurement and building contract matters;
- client side project management and monitoring; and
- latent defects management.
A major part of our work is for the provision of facilities for
the Children and Young Persons Department providing new, extended
and refurbished schools, children’s centres and other associated
facilities. We also provide the same services to all other
departments covering Libraries, Fire and Rescue Service and Adult’s
Services, such as care homes, day care facilities and assisted
living premises.
Typically, there is an average annual spend of around £40m,
excluding Private Finance Initiative (PFI), Public Private
Partnership (PPP) and Design Build Operate (DBO) projects,
representing a great variety of schemes at design and construction
stage at any one time.
Depending upon workload, it is often necessary to brief,
appoint, manage and monitor external consultants to assist in the
delivery of these programmes of work.
The main requirements of the department are to ensure that all
schemes are delivered within the parameters of good design,
programme, budget, and quality in the most sustainable way possible
with a view to achieve best value results.
The key stages to delivering a typical capital project are shown
below.
Concept stage
This is the strategic decision making stage of a project and we
work collaboratively with other departments across West
Sussex County Council (WSCC) and external agencies to
ensure a joined up approach and to allow us to work with the
fullest information possible.
Feasibility design studies are carried out to determine the
options available, ultimately to establish the viability of a
scheme on a best value basis. It will include the use of option
costing/analysis, possibly based on whole life costs should this be
appropriate for the scheme.
It also includes investigation into the legal aspects of site
ownership, way leaves, rights of way, traffic studies and all other
site constraints that need to be determined prior to any decision
to commit funds being made.
Design stage
This is where the concept is turned into reality. The design is
of course expected to conform with all legislative and specific
county standards and requirements. It is also expected to
achieve ‘good’ or better Building Research Establishment’s
Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) assessments (on
selected schemes) and to embrace current best practice on
environmental and sustainable construction methodologies to meet
the Constructing Excellence agenda.
Other considerations such as design quality indicators and the
reduction of construction waste are emerging issues that must be
factored into the overall design package.
We are responsible for selecting the most relevant procurement
strategy to protect the County Council’s interests and to ensure an
acceptable balance of project risk and cost is achieved. We aim to
ensure that the contractor is selected on a range of criteria that
is not just focussed on price but on achieving best value.
The principle of partnering is one that is encouraged and the
use of contractor frameworks is seen as a way of achieving
efficiencies and certainty.
Construction and delivery stage
This stage of the process is all about the management of
delivering client requirements, change management, cost control,
reporting and monitoring of the programme. It also involves the
co-ordination of internal providers, such as final loose equipment
fit-out and information communication technology (ICT)
installations, to ensure they all dovetail together within the
overall project programme.
Completion is a concept that is often misunderstood and needs to
be managed with the same care as the project itself. It is not only
about providing safe accommodation for occupants and supplying
completion documents but the efficient ‘hand over’ of the premises
to the client or end user groups who need to be fully informed
about the asset/environment they will be using.
Post-completion stage
Work continues after completion to ensure that all record
information about the scheme is accurate and stored correctly in
the West Sussex County Council databases. Final accounts need to be
settled and any outstanding disputes resolved efficiently. Defects
must be managed and rectified with the least disruption to
operational effectiveness as possible.
The performance of the whole team is scored using industry
standard performance indicators to ensure standards and targets
have been met and project reviews carried out in order to learn
from experiences.
For further information please contact the Capital Projects
enquiry line: 01243 752224.
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