Stockton-on-Tees: Unruffled residents count as much as cash

The job was the second section of the South Stockton Link, a new dual carriageway which links the new housing development of Ingleby Barwick to Stockton town centre and the A66. Stockton had procured this £11m project traditionally, but both sides agreed to try a partnering approach.

On September 11 the partnering board, made up from senior management people from the council and contractor Birse, were meeting to discuss an issue which site staff couldn't resolve. There had been problems, many of them related to an already complex crossing of the River Tees which had been further complicated by discrepancies between drawings and other contract documents on the river bed level. Birse's QS, working to the contract, had submitted a claim for £0.75m.

The claim could be backed up, but Stockton and Birse had signed up to each others' goals as part of the partnering workshop. Stockton didn't want to bust its budget; Birse wanted to make a profit. Birse regional managing director at the time, Sean Anderson, honoured the agreement. "From the outset Sean and I talked about complete honesty, openness and trust. September 11 was the date I realised that it meant something," says Robinson.

So the contractor looked again at the claim, to work out exactly what it had actually cost them. Traditionally, explains Robinson, a QS looks to maximise the claim he can make for his employer.

Mutual understanding
Both parties learnt throughout the contract. It was the Stockton highways department's first partnering job. Birse learnt a big lesson about Stockton: that its number one priority is not to get the job done, but to cause minimum hassle and disruption to its rate payers. As highways engineer Tom Andrew puts it: "All these people who live round here cause us a load of grief if they cannot walk the dog, hang their washing out or if they are disturbed by the noise."

Robinson says that making the client – in this case the rate payer – happy is a Rethinking Construction goal and stops the time and money wastage which comes from dealing with complaints and problems.

"Now we understand that part of their job, we can help them to do it," says Tony Jackson, Birse's current regional MD. "We didn't know before. It's never written in the contract. It was like a light coming on."

This enlightenment came in handy when Stockton put the next £17m section of the road out to tender. Stockton used quality considerations only to select three contractors for interview from a long list of six, one of the major considerations being how the contractor was going to minimise disruption for the local community.

Part of the job involves widening the A66 bridge which runs over an existing carriageway and takes cars to Middlesbrough, including to the Riverside Stadium where 'Boro' play. One contractor proposed to close the road for 40 days, another to close it just at weekends (when most football matches happen). Birse asked for two night closures.

This stage started in January this year and there is a marked difference in the way problems are solved, says Robinson. "Previously Birse would do a significant amount of work to determine responsibility before it came to us with a problem. On this stage the partnership resolves the problems."

Finding the funds
Perhaps the biggest challenge remaining now comes from the way such projects are funded. Someone sets the spending profile years before a scheme is constructed, and funding has to be spent as it has been allocated. "It becomes quite restrictive and can clash with engineering logic," explains Andrew.

Birse did offer to tackle this problem by loaning cash until the next financial year, so that the road could be built more effectively, but this suggestion fell foul of the government rules on borrowing.

Robinson is still bullish about turn out costs, which he says will only creep up slightly from the budgeted £31.5m to £32m. It will open on time, he says, which compares pretty well to data from Local Government Office for the North East suggesting common outcomes are 20% overbudget and 18 months late.

But what about Birse? The other side of the partnering agreement was that Birse makes a decent profit. Jackson reckons it comes out on top. "You might have to compromise, but if they see you making a mistake and point it out, that saves you money.

"We like this approach because it gives us more work, makes you a bit more money and it keeps the customer happy."