CPCCBC4007A: Assessment 3 - Construction Site Management and Planning

This assignment solution for CPCCBC4007A, a construction-related course, addresses key aspects of construction site management and planning. It begins with an overview of site establishment plans, emphasizing their importance in defining the working area, ensuring worker safety, and preventing public trespassing. The solution details the role of the site representative and site engineer in establishing boundaries and conducting surveys. It then discusses organizational charts, explaining how they depict relationships within a construction company and are affected by technology, human resources, management strategy, and the organizational environment. The assignment also delves into contracts, differentiating between main contractors and subcontractors, and highlighting the dependencies between them. It emphasizes the importance of the main contract terms in subcontract agreements. Furthermore, the solution explores the critical path method (CPM) for project management, outlining how to identify critical and float activities to determine the project's timeline. Finally, the assignment addresses the need for plan reviews when project delays occur, proposing solutions such as on-site steel fabrication to mitigate time lost due to concrete testing.

CPCCBC4007A: Assessment 3
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Question 1
A site is basically the working area designated by the client and the contractor. Therefore, this
place provides security to the workers as well as the equipment and plants used in the
construction work. However, this area needs to be properly demarcated and outlined to prevent
trespassing by the public. All this noted, there needs to be a proper and well-documented site
establishment plan prior to the beginning of any works. A site establishment plan is a document
or a piece of writing that clearly defines the working area as agreed upon by the landowner and
the contractor. In this, the plan outlines the various features available at the site and provides
valuable insight into the location of the accommodation facilities, the footpaths, the boundaries,
the offices among others.
A construction site should be well designed to ensure that neither the environment nor the public
is affected by the nature of the work. Furthermore, it should have the necessary requirements,
accommodation as well as equipment, to ensure that there is efficient work progress. However,
this should be as per the site plans.Finally, the plan should provide an appropriate demolition
plan that can be put into effect after completion of the contract
One person who uses the site establishment plan very frequently is the company’s site
representative. He/she is responsible for the establishment of a site because he works in
conjunction with other departments such as the contracts department etc. to ensure the delivery
of site materials and plants. All this is as per the site establishment plan requirements. However,
the responsibility of setting out the boundaries and the initial survey is delegated to the site
engineer (Turner, 2008). Prior to any works at the site, the site engineer ensures that the
boundaries are well established by basically focusing on survey data.

Prior to the drafting of a site establishment plan, a survey is required. The survey is conducted in
order to establish the relative distances that the various features are from each other and also
provides a good estimate of the areas that the equipment and materials will occupy. The survey
method that has been extensively used is a photographic survey (Barhale, 2015). The survey
provides useful photographic information on the different parts of the site, therefore, providing a
basis for the necessary cut and fill procedures.
Finally, the site establishment plan is used as a precautionary tool towards the public and any
third parties that may be affected by the works. What this means is that the site establishment
plan provides detailed information of the coverage of the site and as such, any parties likely to be
affected by the site's operation should forward their grievances. Furthermore, the site plan
provides an insight into all the materials and structures likely to be affected when the site is
established. Some of the structures include cables, pipelines, buildings etc. If the contractor and
the client cannot provide considerable protection ton such structures, it is important for a mutual
agreement with the owner.
A site establishment plan for project 3 is sketched below.

The site establishment plan
Question 2
Organizational charts are essentially diagrammatic descriptions of an organization. Therefore,
they enable a third party to observe the whole organization in a single view. Basically,
organizational charts show the relationship between various departments, the CEO to their
managing directors, the managing directors to their juniors and so on. However, the chart is
found on a hierarchical basis with the superiors indicated to occupy the top parts of the chart. In
companies that have a numerous number of employees and/or departments, the organizational
chart may be bogus enough to call for the splitting of this chart into smaller ones.

There are various factors that affect the organizational chart and some include technology,
human resource, management strategy and the organizational environment. To begin with, the
technology employed by any organization determines the size of an organizational structure
because it determines the number of employees that can be monitored in a single instance.
Companies employing the latest technology are able to monitor a considerable number of
employees than those still dependent on outdated technology. Therefore, the organizational chart
in the latter case tends to be smaller than in the former. The human resource aspect basically
considers the level of skill employed by the company’s employees. Companies that have
employees who can be grouped into teams tend to have a more flexible organizational chart than
companies whose employees are very skilled, such as engineering firms. The strategy defines an
organizational structure on the management principles employed where increased vertical
communication may require a more flexible organizational chart than where the communication
is horizontally oriented. Finally, the ability of the management structure to change easily affects
the organizational chart by determining the level of versatility. In this, companies whose
management structure is not very steady may require a flexible organizational chart than those
whose management structure is more rigid.
Question 3
Basically, a contract is a mutual agreement between the client and the contractor. However, to
ensure that the works are completed in time with no delays, the main contractor may employ a
number of subcontractors to help out on some specialized portions (Charms & Bryant, 1984). An
electrical engineer is an example of a subcontractor in a construction work. In this, the
subcontractor is employed to carry out the specialized portion of the work he/she is best suited.
Other types of subcontractors include plumbing works, steel works etc. By basically, employing

subcontractors, the main contractor has delegated, most of his duties to the aforementioned
parties. However, he may be involved in minor construction works.
As in our case, the steel manufacture is the subcontractor because he has been employed to
manufacture steel. The contract between a subcontractor and the contractor is much similar to
that between the contractor and the client. The main difference between the subcontract and the
main contract lies within dependency. In this, the subcontract depends on the stipulations of the
main contract. One major factor is the amount and the terms of payment in the main contract.The
client and the main contractor have to come to terms on the method and amount to be paid for
the services which later can be evaluated to indicate the amount of money to be paid to the
subcontractor. Furthermore, the main contract indicates the types of accommodation, working
conditions etc. which need to be transferred to the subcontract. Therefore, failure by the client
and the main contractor to come to an agreement in the main contract stalls the agreements in the
subcontract. As in our case, the contractor and the steel company cannot come to a proper
agreement on the contract terms because of the unavailability of the main contract.
Finally, the money to be allocated to the project has to be outlined in the main contract. In this,
the bill of quantities is provided to the client who disburses the money allocated. However, if the
main contract is not signed and there is no allocation of money, the project cannot proceed. All
this can limit the progress of any construction work.

Question 4
In any project, there is the shortest route and the longest route that can be used for the project to
be completed successfully. However, some projects may come across unforeseen situations and
as such, may lead to delayed project completion time. Therefore, it is important to determine the
time that can be used for the project to be completed successfully. One tool that has been used is
where the critical path management tool. The critical path management tool basically focuses on
two types of activities within a project: those with float and the critical activities (Reh, n.d.).
Float activities are those that can be rescheduled for later dates without affecting the stipulated
completion time while critical activities are those whose rescheduling can result in a delayed
project completion time (Filwv, 2017). In trying to establish the critical path, the first step is to
select the first activity of the project. This is the activity that is first carried out at the site. The
second step is to determine the activities that are dependent on this initial activity. From all these
activities, the critical activity is the one that takes the longest time. The process is repeated until
all activities are covered.

Question 5
Construction plans need to be reviewed when there is a possibility that a project will not be
completed within the stipulated time. The reviewing of the initial plans is basically focused on
providing alternative and contingency measures to the problem. As in our case where 4 weeks
have been lost due to the testing that was done on concrete, there is the need for the planners and
managers to review the initial plans and provide a contingency measure. One solution would be
to deliver the steel as individual members for fabrication at the site. The steel fabrication takes 6
weeks but this can be done on site while maintaining all the other activities

References
Barhale. (2015). Integrated Management System (IMS) of Barhale Construction (Safety, Quality,
Environment).
Charms, A. B., & Bryant, D. T. (1984). Studying the client's role in construction management.
Construction management and economics.
Filwv, A. (2017). Critical path method in project management is as easy as 1,2,3. Retrieved 11 30, 2017,
from www.wrike.com/blog/critical-path-is-as-easy-as-123/
Reh, F. J. (n.d.). Critical path project management(CPM). Retrieved 11 29, 2017, from
https://www.thebalance.com/critical-path-project-management-cpm-2276128
Turner, J. R. (2008). handbook of project-based management.