Experiences of Program & Project Management: Eurotunnel & Crossrail

This report discusses the program and project management experiences from the Eurotunnel program and their impact on the Crossrail project. It highlights key aspects of both projects, focusing on the challenges faced by Eurotunnel and how Crossrail learned from these experiences. The analysis covers the initial attempts and government commitment to the Crossrail project, the creative problem-solving approaches used in the Eurotunnel project, and the organizational structure involving private companies and government sponsorship. The report also addresses issues such as cost overruns and delays in the Eurotunnel project due to scope creep and specification changes. It further explores how Crossrail adopted best practices from the Olympic Development Authority and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Project, emphasizing the importance of program controls and sustainability. The study concludes by highlighting the benefits Crossrail gained from the mistakes and lessons learned during the Eurotunnel project, leading to significant improvements in project delivery and sustainability practices.

Running head: PROGRAM & PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Program & Project Management Experiences of Crossrail Program from The Eurotunnel
Program
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Abstract:
The report provided below is associated with discussing about the experiences of the the program
& project management from the Eurotunnel program and how they have been associated with
affecting the Crossrail project. The report has been associated with highlighting the major
aspects of both the projects and has also been associated with discussing the numerous ways that
has been adopted by Crossrail after learning form the mistakes that have been conducted by the
Eurotunnel project. Firstly the report has been associated with introducing both of this project
which is followed by the analysis. In the analysis section the major aspects of the Eurotunnel has
been discussed so as to understand the major challenges that have been faced. After this the
effects of the Eurotunnel upon the Crossrail project has been discussed. Lastly the report
concludes with the major benefits that the Crossrail project has earned after learning from the
Eurotunnel project.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Analysis:..........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................8
References:....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction:
Crossrail Project is the project which is considered to be the infrastructure project, which
is the largest project existing in Europe and UK. From this it is expected that such a large scale
investment which is also importance towards the intense considerations as well as the scrutiny
has certainly been seen in case of the Crossrail (Black, Dodge and Lawrence 2015). This project
at the beginning has been associated with making a lot of attempts that failed in seeking the
parliamentary powers in the year of 1990 but finally it was capable of receiving the commitment
of Government in the year of 2007.
Eurotunnel program is considered to be a dream which has come true and its construction
began in the year of 1986/1987and is considered to be one of the greatest engineering as well as
the political accomplishment in the 20th century (Jole 2017). This project was entirely
unprecedented and huge and so the French and British Governments made an decision related to
arranging a contest. The contest was associated with encouraging the companies so as to propose
certain ideas as well as plans and designs and for the purpose of creating a link all across the
English Channel.
Analysis:
In the Eurotunnel project numerous proposals were received and generally included
different type of forms of tunnel as well as bridges. Amongst those designs some of them were
so extravagant that they got dismissed immediately whereas there was few designs that were
extremely expensive as well as unfeasible. The one which was later selected was the proposal
that was submitted by the Balfour Beatty Construction Company (KALFA and GOLLAN 2014).
This is considered to be a very creative way of proceeding with the project whenever challenging

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situation arises in the project. In case whenever the project manager is facing a challenge or any
kind of problem in solving the issues then the manager might be associated with organizing a
companywide contest for the purpose of seeking the solution which is the best. This would not
only be associated with helping in promoting the project but would also be associated with
creating a sense that they belong to the project.
According to the perspective of project management this project was sponsored by two
government and was entirely led and completed by the private company which was associated
with employing the local construction teams from each side (Smith 2014). And this teams were
further divided into other teams which was done in accordance to the specialty along with the
tasks and the responsibilities. For the purpose of avoiding the conflicts related to interest the
entire Eurotunnel was funded privately which is considered to be rare for the large-scale public
infrastructure projects (Sadgrove 2016). Lastly the scale along with the entire complexity of the
project is called for the new techniques along with the technologies in the field of civil
engineering and the teams existing on both the sides were capable of overcoming the barriers
like language barriers, metrics, the engineering companies, the financial institutions and the
different ways of working and doing all the things.
However major delays has been exist there as well as cost overrun which exceeded more
over 75% of the prepared budget and the cost extension was expected and this mainly happened
due to the non-existence of any type of precedent as well as related experiences so as to have an
estimate which would be appropriate.
The major reasons lying behind the delay mainly occurred due to creep in the scope as
well as due to the changes in the specifications at the time f constriction (Alotaibi and
Mafimisebi 2016). One such example is at the time of designing and planning of the entire

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project the entire air conditioning system was excludes. Normally there does not exists any kind
of need of having an air conditioning system in the tunnels because the air always circulates
freely inside a tunnel. However this Eurotunnel was not a simple tunnel. The temperature due to
high speed trains along with the length, depth and width of the tunnels were responsible for
generation of high temperature which initially lead to mal function of the equipment. In order to
solve this problem there was a need of employing a special air conditioning system which would
be helping in maintaining the temperature of the tunnel around 38 degree to 50 degree (Lock
2017). This initially lead to putting forward of the fact that there is always a need of considering
each and every details of the project along with the challenges and issues so as to avoid any kind
of delays in the planning and in the designing phase. However despite of the delays and the cost
overruns the Eurotunnel was constructed which acted as the greatest infrastructure project of the
modern times and there were many other facts which were very helpful in the Crossrail project.
The structuring of the Crossrail project was sought for the purpose of adopting the best
from the recent predecessors or particularly from the Olympic Development Authority as well as
from the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Project. The Central Government along with the London
Local Government as well as the Transport Authority combined with one another so as to
assemble all the funding’s that were necessary along with the co-sponsors of the project by
making use of an SPV style project company “Crossrail Limited” (Nicholson et al. 2014).
Additionally the relationship that existed between the Central Government by means of the
Department for the London Authorities and Transport by means of the Transport of London
together acted as the sponsors and along with this the Crossrail Ltd. Was established in the PDA
or the Project Development Agreement. One of the major requirement of this PDA included the

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setting out of the delivery strategy about hoe the Crossrail Ltd would be carrying out its project
in a successful way.
One of the major key for the success of any project along with managing the program of
this scale is the complexity program controls process. Also the existence of a predecessor
organization is there which is known as the Cross London Rail Links Ltd which was the duty for
the entire progress and implementation phase of the approached project and followed by this was
the entry of the Crossrail Ltd into the phase of delivery of the project which included few
essential systems along with the requirements so as to have such a major undertaking (Tucker
2017). The program controls section was associated with setting out the way by which the
Crossrail had been capable of developing a world class controls function.
The activities of this project was expanded across almost 40 site places all across the
entire city at that time was around £140m per month and besides this more attention was paid to
the quality which acted as the paramount for achieving the high standards that are consistent
which exists all around the project and is also responsible for minimization of any kind of rework
(Black 2017). Besides this like the Eurotunnel the Crossrail project has also been associated with
the adaptation of industry leading approach towards having a quality management all across the
project.
The vision of the entire Crossrail right from the outline was built with high security in
order to prepare London a world class railway service. And as a major substance of the Crossrail
has perpetually been associated with desires in order to enhance the bar which is related to the
performance in the industry. One of the key part of this is that it is having the commitment of
considering the sustainability in the process of decision making from the very first day (Dodgson
et al. 2015). Crossrail has been associated with addressing all this at the social, economic as well

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as the environmental levels for the purpose of maximizing the benefits that are to be obtained
from the project along with making sure that the impact is being minimized upon the
communities as well as upon the environments where it generally operates.
Crossrail has been associated with setting out an entirely new standards in the sustainability
practices. One such example is due to collaborative working with various Developing research
Establishments, the BREEAM assessment criterion for the external performances in the
underground stations which has been implemented successfully (Yeow et al. 2014). Besides this
there has also been an established aspirant community investment progress along with the
objectives which are driven by the legacies.
Technology was associated role in acting as a driver for the entire project. Dedicated
towards advancement in the practices related to sustainability the Crossrail project team has been
assisted by the hybrid diesel electric excavators along with the noise monitoring stations and
hydrogen fuel cell powered lighting as well as the usage of the LED lightning instead of the
conventional lightning halogen or fluorescent light so as to reduce the power level.
Accumulation of the new machine performance standards along with the retrofitting of
the pointed controls it was possible to use the hybrid technologies along with providing of proper
training. This in turn has helped Crossrail in significant reduction of the particulate emissions
across all the 40 sites of construction and the 250 engine along with more that 80% of the
requirement having complaint with these particular requirements (Pickett 2015). Additionally the
Crossrail has been recognized as the first infrastructure project which has been associated with
the adaptation of the strict emissions controls all across the working sites. Besides this the
Crossrail had also introduced new along with clean machines all across London along with
helping in encouraging the suppliers so as to upgrade all the machine and equipment. The

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success factor of this program upon the Crossrail was been associated with helping in supporting
the Greater London Authorities intent for having a wide scale of introduction of the mentioned
controls.
The Crossrail Ltd has been associated with selecting the Bechtel-led team as the
approached project delivery co-partner in order to work with the integrated team which was
associated with the delivery of 42KM central tunnel section along with 8 subsurface stations
(Davies et al. 2014). The Network rail has also been associated with selecting the Bechtel as the
delivery partner for the purpose in order to manage the exclusive upgrades with the existence of
rail network outside London, The integrated teams is associated with managing the extensive
engineering as well as the construction programs so as to build a much needed new railway.
Conclusion:
From the mistakes conducted in the Eurotunnel project it was possible to proceed with
the Crossrail project. Studies were conducted carefully along with making of proper plans as
well as ground reinforcement efforts were made so as to minimize the various kind of risks
related to ground settlement which are associated with affecting the buildings as well as the
infrastructure that were located above the tunnels. Above the new twin-bore tunnels running
Beneth Centrak London were also observed that in order to make sure of the stability besides this
more than 2000 structure were situated. This was initially responsible for relocations of the
major utilities all across London for the purpose of protecting the vital services for the residents
as well as for the businesses. Another major challenge that is the tunneling was also considered
so as to reduce any kind of cost overrun or time overrun. For this reason throughout the entire
project large tunnel boring machines were used which worked all around the clock and moved
through the ground honeycombed with numerous sewer, water and gas lines.

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The Crossrail project is associated with representing the first ever BREEAM standard
which was mainly developed and applied for the purpose of evaluating all the underground
stations and this in turn is associated with the establishment of other station’s benchmark as well.
All the structure of the stations has reached 'very good' ratings for the designs under BREEAM
as the entire planning was done accurately along with the usage of the avdnaved technologies in
the process of construction. Besides this the tunnels, portals and shafts were also associated with
attaining of 'excellent' rating at design under CEEQUAL.

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References:
Alotaibi, A.B. and Mafimisebi, O.P., 2016. Project management practice: redefining theoretical
challenges in the 21st century. Project Management, 7(1), pp.93-99.
Black, M., 2017, May. Crossrail project: managing geotechnical risk on London’s Elizabeth line.
In Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Civil Engineering (Vol. 170, No. 5, pp. 23-
30). Thomas Telford Ltd.
Black, M.G., Dodge, C. and Lawrence, U., 2015. Crossrail Project: Infrastructure design and
construction.
Davies, A., MacAulay, S., DeBarro, T. and Thurston, M., 2014. Making innovation happen in a
megaproject: London's crossrail suburban railway system. Project Management Journal, 45(6),
pp.25-37.
Dodgson, M., Gann, D., MacAulay, S. and Davies, A., 2015. Innovation strategy in new
transportation systems: The case of Crossrail. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and
Practice, 77, pp.261-275.
Jole, M., 2017. Experiences from Eurotunnel. Impact on the Current Cross Rail Programme
Management.
KALFA, S. and GOLLAN, P.J., 2014. Partnership at Eurotunnel: challenges for NER and union
representation. In Voice and Involvement at Work (pp. 180-208). Routledge.
Lock, D., 2017. The essentials of project management. Routledge.

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Nicholson, D.P., Chen, Q., de Silva, M., Winter, A. and Winterling, R., 2014, June. The design
of thermal tunnel energy segments for Crossrail, UK. In Proceedings of the Institution of Civil
Engineers-Engineering Sustainability (Vol. 167, No. 3, pp. 118-134). Thomas Telford Ltd.
Pickett, A., 2015. Crossrail sprayed concrete linings. In Crossrail project: Infrastructure design
and construction (pp. 137-153). ICE Publishing.
Sadgrove, K., 2016. The complete guide to business risk management. Routledge.
Smith, S., 2014. Building information modelling–moving Crossrail, UK, forward. Proceedings
of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Management, Procurement and Law, 167(3), pp.141-151.
Tucker, W., 2017, May. Crossrail project: the execution strategy for delivering London’s
Elizabeth line. In Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Civil Engineering (Vol. 170,
No. 5, pp. 3-14). Thomas Telford Ltd.
Yeow, H.C., Nicholson, D., Man, C.L., Ringer, A., Glass, P. and Black, M., 2014. Application of
observational method at Crossrail Tottenham Court Road station, UK. Proceedings of the
Institution of Civil Engineers-Geotechnical Engineering, 167(2), pp.182-193.