Rawlinson’s provided full quantity surveying services on the South West Metropolitan Railway Perth to Mandurah design and construct contract.
Following Rawlinsons successful engagement on the PTA’s $700 million Northern Suburbs Transit System (NSTS), Rawlinsons were engaged by the PTA to provide estimating services at PDP, reference design and pre-tender. Utilising the costs data gained on the NSTS project Rawlinsons worked through each design phase providing appropriate cost estimating methods based on the design available. Throughout these estimates Rawlinsons worked closely with the PTA engineers in order to provide first principle estimating for the OLE and signalling systems.
At pre-tender estimate stage Rawlinson’s also provided tender documentation by way of abridged Bills of Quantities (BOQ) based on 80% documentation and priced the BOQ to form the basis of the PTE. The overall outcome was a great success with the awarded contract within 2% of the PTE.
The BOQ tender documentation scope of work was broken into various work packages including stations, structures and rail corridor works. As the documentation was only 80% complete the turnover of variations submitted by the contractor was rapid, the assessment and agreement of variations had to be dealt with vigilantly to ensure that an amicable relationship was maintained with both the Client and Contractor until contract completion. It was important to determine if variations were legitimate as large portions were for items that it was the contractor’s responsibility for. In order ensure a speedy turnaround of variations approval, Rawlinsons established fortnightly meetings with the contractor and PTA. Once it had been established if a variation claim was legitimate Rawlinsons would review each variation to ensure that the cost provided were fair and reasonable. This review was largely based on utilising the BOQ rates or alternatively if no applicable rates were in the BOQ then a then a minimum of 3 sub-contractor quotations were required and agreed margin for the main contractor applied to the direct cost.
Similarly Rawlinson provided commercial advice on Extension of Time Claims submitted by the contractor. Due to the complex nature of the works and the dependent relationships between various packages of works a significant amount of EOT’s with costs were submitted by the contractor. Rawlinsons provided initial review of each claim in line with the contract conditions to ascertain if the EOT claim and costs were legitimate. Many of the claims were rejected due to being time barred, not in accordance with the contract or unsubstantiated. As a variation mitigation strategy Rawlinsons included a provisional quantity of days within the BOQ for the contractor to price. This not only ensured that a competitive rates was locked in for the assessment of EOT costs but also that the contract sum had a built in contingency. For all claims that were legitimate Rawlinsons provided detailed analysis of any extension of time costs associated with the delays. An official recommendation was provided to the Superintendent.
Rawlinson’s also provided progress claim assessment on this project and Rawlinsons were pro-active in requesting that a schedule for progress claims was tabled at the first site meeting. The contractor was requested to submit claims on the scheduled dates and each claim requested to include a fully broken down schedule of works in the agreed work breakdown structure. A pdf version of the claim was to be accompanied by an excel version and a primavera file showing progress of all work items. Claims for any materials off site were assessed in accordance with the contract conditions. Only approved variations were paid under the interim certificate.
