Rawlinsons were engaged by the Public Transport Authority (PTA) to provide a Class 4 Cost Estimate for inclusion in the project Business Case to Infrastructure Australia (IA).
The cost estimate was required to be carried out in accordance with the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development(DIRD) guidelines and included the following items which were all estimated Rawlinsons in conjunction with the Metronet Project Manager to produce a Total Outturn Cost Estimate:
· Direct Costs
· Indirect Costs
· Margin
· Client Costs
· Contingency for risk P50 and P90
· Cashflow and Escalation
Rawlinsons worked as part of the overall design team co-ordinating and providing advice to the lead design consultant throughout the development of the designs. At all times Rawlinsons provided timely cost advice ranging from comparative costs for various structural construction methodologies to recommendations on procurement options to achieve the best value for money for the project. Rawlinsons provided presentations on cost estimates as well as co-ordinated estimate reviews meetings consisting of the PMO, lead design consultant, PTA representatives and Metronet Project Manager. This ensured that the estimate was thoroughly reviewed, challenged and refined in order to accurately capture the scope of works along with the associated risks and opportunities.
As part of this engagement Rawlinsons participated in risk workshops which were facilitated by a qualitative risk analysis consultant. During this workshop Rawlinsons identified a number of significant risks that needed to be captured, provided cost estimates for financial impacts of incurred risks as well as identified if any of the current risks had already been captured in the base cost estimate. Once all this information had been co-ordinated and refined, Rawlinsons inputted the data into @Risk software to calculate the contingent risk value in the project. Rawlinsons also carried out an inherent risk review for the base costs estimate. The combination of this task provided a contingency value for both P50 and P90 confidence levels.
Following the initial cost estimate (P50) Rawlinsons were tasked with the role of providing in depth value engineering services in order to bring the project back on budget. Rawlinsons carried out an internal VE session in order to interrogate and question all aspects of the design and scope. Following this session, Rawlinsons compiled a list of potential value engineering options and opportunities that was provided to the Metronet project manager. Additionally, a number of value engineering workshops were held with the Metronet Office, lead design consultant, constructability consultant, PTA and other relevant stakeholders. Throughout these workshops the attendees were broken into various groups and provided ‘brainstorming’ review of key project cost drivers and provided alternative options in order to reduce the costs. Following a review of all items a final list of VE options was drawn up and Rawlinsons subsequently provided estimated cost savings for each item. Along with a review of the direct costs, Rawlinsons worked with the PMO and project director to further analyse the indirect costs and client costs. The end result was a revised estimated total outturn cost with significant cost savings achieved.
