Assignment Task

Introduction

Several years ago, LSBU awarded a contract for the demolition and removal of the London Road building (i.e. including the removal of the parts that are below the ground level). The contract also included backfill of the building site to the ground level because there was not enough budget to plan a new development at the time. In 2018 LSBU agreed with an architectural practice to develop a mixed-purpose building on this site and since then the design works have been progressing. The design is at the beginning of RIBA Stage 3 and few alternatives are being considered for the envelope. Nevertheless, your company would like to have some estimations based on the information in hand as part of preparing for a competitive bid.

You are the junior planner and you are asked by a senior estimator to focus on the initial planning of the works that are under the ground level. Your contribution will be used as part of deciding a fixed all-in price for the delivery of the entire building. To provide this fixed price, the senior estimator asked you to generate a time schedule and method statement(s) for the works under the ground level as well as a consideration of the corresponding items that would contribute to the cost of preliminaries.

The architect sent you a Revit model of the current design. However, because the design is at an early stage you may find some inconsistencies/inadequacies (i.e. technically and/or digitally) in the model; and/or you may need to make some assumptions for the bits of information that are missing, in order to complete the task assigned to you by the senior estimator.

According to the desk study

1. The water table at the location is expected to be at 3.5m below original ground level; and
2. The stratigraphy of the soil layers are expected as: (a)Layer 1 – 1.5m of loose to medium dense sand;
3. 6m of dense sand
4. Organic peat and silty clays with an average thickness of 2m;
5. Very dense sand with thickness varying from depth of 13 to 19m
6. Stiff clay inter-bedded with sand strips
7. Argillite weathered rock.

Questions

1. Develop a list of activities that need to be completed up to, and including, the construction of the ground floor slab (e.g. enabling works, excavation, piling, foundation, basement etc. – exclude design stage works and focus on construction stage works). The total number of activities will not exceed 50 tasks and the tasks will cover the site works as well as the other works that are under the ground level (including the construction of the ground floor slab).

Use a Method Statement Form (see below for an example) to itemize the work to be done, the approximate quantity of each work item (i.e. each activity), and a brief explanation of the method that will be used to do each of the activities.

Based on this explanation of the method, provide production (output) rates for each item of work (from, for example, Estimators Price Books, such as facing bricks 1.2 hours per square meter) and give a brief explanation of how you calculated the production (output) rate that you are using (i.e. what are the assumed gang sizes and/or number of machinery etc.). Finally, estimate the durations for each activity based on the total quantity of the work and the expected production (output) rate.

2. For this question, first, present the list of activities that you developed in Question 1 in the form of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Then, develop a time schedule (a programme) for the works that need to be completed up to, and including, the construction of the ground floor slab. You may use CPM or Line of Balance (e.g. for example if you are doing activities in phases) methods.

Your required output will be a Gantt Chart with the list of activities listed on the left-hand side. The list of activities will be organized according to the WBS that you created, and it will also be complemented with some basic activity information (i.e. duration, start date, finish date, amount of free float). Include milestones in your programme as you see fit. The bars representing your critical activities will be in red. You may use any computer software (Not limited to MS Project we have learnt) available to you or you may draw the Gantt Chart by hand on an A3 paper, provided that it is neat, and it looks professional, then scan it and put in into the digital submission.

3. Assume that you have and only have £5,500 for investment. Now there are two projects for you to choose in the planning stage. The cash flow for each is given in the Table 2. The required return for both projects is 10%. Compare the payback, IRR, and NPV between the two projects and make your decision of which one to choose and explain why.

4. Critical Thinking (Based On Literature Review)

Write a critical thinking essay (min 750 words and max 1000 words) on ‘planning as a managerial function’ with a focus on planning in construction management.

This essay must make use of, and refer to, at least 5 journal articles published in academic journals focused on management (i.e. can be general management, project management, construction management articles). This question requires you to read several academic publications in the area(s) specified above and create a text that discusses the concept of ‘planning’ in construction management by critical thinking.

In this context, critical thinking involves understanding various arguments and perspectives provided in different papers that you read. You are then required to use these arguments and perspectives to develop your essay using your own interpretation of them. You could talk along the lines of a variety of topics related to planning in construction management, including (but not limited to) the importance, challenges, benefits of planning or the variety of approaches and processes for planning and their effectiveness etc. Instead Of Giving Superficial Arguments On Several Areas Similar To These, Try To Give Well-Developed Arguments On One/Two Of These Kind Of Areas.