"Let me tell you something about multi-disciplinary practices," corrected the NMEC's project manager. "Architects don't talk to engineers, and even electrical engineers don't speak to their mechanical colleagues. When you get down to it, they might as well be in different firms."
"The difference here," he went on, "is that the entire design and construction team is integrated, from top to bottom. We are all in one office with a single objective. You can feel the buzz – it's quite electric."
As the NMEC's on-site project manager in charge of the £350 million budget for the Dome's infrastructure and transport works, the avuncular Trench is a classic poacher turned gamekeeper. In 1979, after 20 years with general contractor Taylor Woodrow, Trench set up his own project management company. Since then he has found himself seconded in various trouble-shooting roles, including two years on the British Library.
Shortly after his successful navigation of the British Library through increasingly litigious waters, NMEC chief executive Jennie Page offered David Trench the plum job of project manager on the Dome. Trench's first task was to get the project on track in a three month honeymoon period before the new Labour Government gave the project its blessing.
"We chose construction management for reasons of flexibility as we knew we would be designing in parallel with construction," said Trench. "We needed that freedom because we didn't know where things were going. I had to take huge guesses, and a lot of those involved large amounts of money."
To get the designers and trade contractors working together in a seamless operation, the NMEC invested £1 million in over 80 computer stations in site offices a stones throw from the Dome. "That was an investment by NMEC not by the consultants and trade contractors," stresses Trench. "On top of that we spent a million quid on the site offices."
The extent of the operation means that not only could the professional design teams work together on-site, but all the trade contractors could as well. "The design process has been so fast that we had to rely heavily on the trade contractors doing the detailed drawings," said Trench. "They did those in the three month honeymoon period, so when they set up on-site they could hit the ground running."
All contracts on the Dome lie with the NMEC, with the joint venture contractor (McAlpine Laing) acting as the NMEC's construction manager. All construction contracts, whether they be the building, the services or the exhibition area, lie with the NMEC.
However, "Culture not contract" has been Trench's maxim on this job, even when a trade contractor got into trouble by using a water-based acoustic spray which caused a plasterboard ceiling to collapse.
"Rather than let the little contractor go broke we helped him solve the problem," said Trench. "Having to get a new contractor in would have cost time, money and hassle," he reasoned. "After all we were all culpable, we'd all missed it. We knew the contractor was in trouble, so we helped him out. The contractor worked night and day, finished on time and got a cheque to cover the damage."
No blame is one thing, but what about no claims?
"One has to recognise that the eye of the master is at its keenest when it is the eye of self-interest" he quotes. "The fee arrangements for all parties – the construction manager, the architect and the engineer – incorporate a sliding mechanism. So, within limits, they are 75% partners in over or under-spend, and the NMEC is the 25% partner. So they take the hit but also the incentive to a much greater degree than the NMEC.
"One thing guaranteed to slow down a project is a high number of interfaces," he explains. "I asked McAlpine Laing to make the packages as large as possible, although we have made separate contracts where the trade contractor's mark-up was uneconomic.
Trench also encouraged extensive off-site prefabrication, even when it wasn't the cheapest solution. "I think it pays off because of the greater penalty of running over programme," he says. "After all, there's no extension on the contract. There isn't even a clause for it." So can Trench guarantee that his extended family of designers and contractors will get the Dome completed by September? "If it isn't" he says frankly, "I'm hanged."
Source
Building Sustainable Design
