Partnering in action

The formal introduction of partnering within the construction industry, via Egan's Rethinking Construction initiative, called for an integration of team work in an atmosphere of openness and trust. Many projects within our region have attempted in various guises to adopt the procurement and administrative procedures of partnering.

One such scheme, in fact six projects forming a simultaneous strategic partnering framework, was initiated by Durham County Council to build six individual frail older person extra care developments located throughout the county.

Through a detailed and demanding selection process undertaken by Durham County Council, a team lead by Hanover Housing Association in conjunction with the local office of M J Gleeson Group – Northern Construction Division was appointed to partner with the county council. Others involved included Mackellar Architecture, services conslutants BES Consulting Engineers, client's representative/quantity surveyors Henry Riley and Billinghurst George and Partners structural engineers.

A partnering workshop was set up and attended by over fifty representatives including senior officials through to individual project site team members in an effort to develop the integrated team approach, which was a vital ingredient to the overall project success.

A partnering charter was developed at the workshop and signed up to by all parties on the day. The charter featured a number of important philosophies including:

• All projects safely conducted on time and within budget.

• High quality developments which exceed the expectations of all stakeholders.

• Job satisfaction and recognition of efforts.

• A zero defects philosophy and minimisation of waste.

• Provision of high quality care and support for the people of County Durham.

Challenges
The partnering arrangement has not been without its challenges in trying to gel together the quality aspirations for materials and finishes coupled with the financial implications, from the perceptions of both public and private sector partners. Other difficulties have proved to be the communications network, in co-ordinating and delivering six separate projects ensuring comparative quality and consistency but providing individuality in the finished products.

The project is being carried out under the PPC 2000 partnering contract with a strong emphasis towards partnering through the supply chain, an absolute necessity to the success of any partnering initiative. Very early on in the project development BES Consulting Engineers advised of the need to integrate the mechanical and electrical services sub-contractors into the process. They proposed that local contractors, three mechanical and three electrical, should be allocated two of the six schemes each, with each contractor pricing competitively against predetermined project budgets set by the professional consultants and value engineered accordingly to meet those budgets.

The mechanical contractors selected were H Malone, R Kirkland and Dunnill Mechanical with Dougal & Railton, Bartram Robson Walker and Hepple Engineering being the electrical contractors.

A specific design criteria of Durham County Council was the implementation of sustainability and energy saving initiatives into each of the individual projects. Timber frame construction was adopted with a specialist contractor – Prestoplan – brought into the team from initial inception. BES Consulting Engineers were instrumental in the introduction of other features which include all six schemes having a small scale combined heat and power plant providing 12·5 kW of available heat integrated into the main heating system and 5·5 kW of electrical capacity for lighting and small power.

Three schemes are to have solar heated hot water via a strategically sited array of roof mounted solar panels. One of the schemes will have a rainwater collection system providing water for the flushing of wcs and serving the centralised laundry facility and 45 apartments will utilise individual heat recovery ventilation systems.

The overall project has been procured and developed at great speed with a tremendous spirit of teamwork and co-operation and is proving to be a testament to partnering and sustainability initiatives in action.