Scenario/Problem Solving Project Analysis: South Gippsland Highway

This project analysis examines the South Gippsland Highway project, focusing on its objectives, delivery method (Design-Build), and contractor selection (CPB Contractors). The project aims to improve safety and reduce delays on the highway. The analysis covers bidding processes, current project updates, and identifies potential issues like cost overruns and schedule delays. The report also evaluates contract types and suggests improvements to the bidding process, including the consideration of internal factors such as the contractor's experience and financial stability. Furthermore, the project's risk factors are evaluated, with recommendations for improvement. The project is designed to reduce road crashes by implementing safety barriers, building bridges, and reducing the highway length. The analysis also highlights revenue generated by CPB Contractors. The project is well-planned, but potential challenges such as land acquisition delays and freight installation changes could affect future project phases. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the project's progress and potential areas for improvement.

Name of the University
Scenario/Problem Solving Project Analysis
On
South Gippsland Highway Project (VIC)
PRJ5108 Project Delivery and Procurement
Assignment 3 Part I
Student Name
Student ID

Table of Contents
Background and Objectives of Case Project:............................................................................3
Delivery Method and Reasons for project delivery method of the Case project..........................3
Main construction contractor Organization and Background...................................................4
The bidding processes and the selection of the construction contractor.....................................4
Current updates of the case project.........................................................................................4
Summary about the improvement in first part.........................................................................5
Variations in Contract Types...................................................................................................5
Issues Related to Case Project.................................................................................................6
Cost overrun or schedule delays for the case project.................................................................6
Summary of Part I and Part II Improvements.........................................................................6
Discussion and Findings..........................................................................................................7
Risk Analysis.......................................................................................................................... 9
Conclusion............................................................................................................................ 10
Recommendations................................................................................................................. 10
References............................................................................................................................ 12

Part A
Background and Objectives of Case Project:
The South Gippsland Highway project restores the highway from the Koonwarra and
Meeniyan Road towards Minns Road. This route is also known as Black Spur and is
responsible for most occurring road crashes, safety issues, and freight delays. South
Gippsland Highway project provides safety barriers in specific locations by building bridges
such as between Meeniyan and Yarram, and on the Tarwin River after consultation with the
community. To make this project successful, sponsorship is an important requirement. The
total investment budget of this project is around $115.2 million by the primary sponsors
Australian and Victorian Governments (Gameng, 2019).
The objectives of the project are as follows:
● Develop a new section of highway between Old Koonwarra-Meeniyan Road and
Minns Road (South Gippsland Highway - Koonwarra Realignment, 2022)
● Decrease highway length from 3.4km to 2.3km (South Gippsland Highway -
Koonwarra Realignment, 2022)
● Removal of 9 Sharp Corner (South Gippsland Highway - Koonwarra Realignment,
2022)
● Creation of 2 new bridges across the Tarwin River (South Gippsland Highway -
Koonwarra Realignment, 2022)
● Intersection for Great Southern Rail Trail to the new Caithness Road
● Close off access for Old section of highway
● Installation of Safety Barriers for ensuring protection against mishaps.
Delivery Method and Reasons for project delivery method of the Case
project
The Design-build or Design-construct is the project delivery of a case project. The owner will
appoint a design-builder or contractor under a single contractor who will look after the
project entirely selected from chosen proposals of different construction companies to extract
the best value (Abou Chakra and Ashi, 2019). Furthermore, the design-construct team will
then start working by providing design elements, the construction process as well as a final
project deliverable. Thre are two reasons why this method was adopted for South Gippsland

Highway Upgrade. First, the design-construct is a project delivery method which is
accomplished through phases which help in the execution of large projects who require faster
delivery. In addition, the design and construction method provide streamlining of all
processes so that management takes place systematically and would not allow any budget
overruns.
Main construction contractor Organization and Background
CPB Contractors is an Australian company from CIMIC Group and this project is been
rewarded. The firm’s objective is to provide client’s project delivery through utmost sincerity
and as well as earn a sustainable return on investment and satisfactory employment
opportunities. The company have vastly extended operations in regions such as Australia,
New Zealand, Asia and Papua New Guinea (South Gippsland Highway Upgrade, 2021).
Some major sectors of construction projects which are broadly delivered include tunnelling,
defence, resource infrastructure, rails, and roads.
The bidding processes and the selection of the construction contractor
The bidding process was undertaken after the completion of comprehensive environmental
assessments of various proposals undertaken as part of a construction project (Calahorra-
Jimenez et al., 2021). As the design construction method was chosen for project delivery,
CPB contractors rewarded the project. There are two reasons why this organization was
selected as the main construction contractor. First of all, the experience of creating projects
on a vast domain helps to understand and acknowledge its importance and work accordingly.
The CPB contractors have an understanding of the traditional custodians of the Bunurong
people the Kulin Nation and the GunaiKurnai people which makes them offer project
delivery as per requirements and empathy for the people surrounding the highway (South
Gippsland Highway Upgrade, 2021). Second, the work principles for end delivery offer
support to the project progress which focuses on integrity, accountability to take actions of
work undertaken, innovation and successful project delivery.
Current updates of the case project
South Gippsland Highway Project has successfully completed all the structural work such as
the bridge situated over Tarwin River as well as wall retention. However, the project in the

upcoming months focuses on new bridges, safety barrier instalments, new intersections,
landscaping and asphalting works, and the installation of an Electronic Speed Limit Sign
(ESLS) (South Gippsland Highway, Lynbrook Boulevard to Manks Road, 2022). The new
upgrades in project work focus on road surfaces and linking new as well as old sections.
Part B
Summary about the improvement in first part
South Gippsland Highway is a project which requires to build the highway upgrade for which
previous report was provided. The report was helpful to determine that new section of
highway could connect Old Koonwarra-Meeniyan Road and Minns Road and will save
mishaps that occurs on this road very frequently (South Gippsland Highway - Koonwarra
Realignment, 2022). However, the report only discusses major project activities, project case
objectives, and project delivery method as well as bidding system for selection of contractor.
The design-build method was found feasible enough to accomplish this project. The feedback
provided depicts that it is important to analyses which contract types are useful in such
complex and large project respectively. Furthermore, the major issues identified will help to
create some risk management processes successfully. Hence, this part of report represents
different contract types, and case associated issues which could harm South Gippsland
Highway in longer way.
Variations in Contract Types
There are no variations of contract types for different works of this project but design and
construct type will be throughout the execution. In this type of contract, two separate
objectives will be accomplished which is designing related to engineering, architecture, and
drafting as well as building which demonstrate actual construction phases taking place (Tsai
and Yang, 2020). As per reports previously, construction of project will take place into
different phases however no variation is depicted. For example, in phase 1 operations will be
designing of road bridge over the rail line and to remove one of 17 level crossings on the
Pakenham Line; second, early works is already done which incorporates site establishment,
underground service relocations and preliminary works for traffic change management;
whereas, intersection at Princes Highway and South Gippsland with complete signalised T-
intersection delivery is mapped into advance construction phases (Powell, 2020).

Issues Related to Case Project
The case project only identified some delays into schedule because number of upgrades from
previous version was identified. However, project planning has been undertaken into planned
and successful manner for which they have achieved milestone. Hence, no other impeding
issues were observed but the success for accomplishments was identified till now. As per this
report findings, South Gippsland Highway Upgrade received a milestone as they have lifted
the bridge beams which will provide proper connectivity and link in between the new South
Gippsland Highway alignment to the existing highway (Gippsland Farmer, 2022).
Furthermore, team have developed 24 beam infrastructure on the second bridge around
Tarwin River and Great Southern Rail Trail. As a result, no delay was found because beam
lifts were resourceful to create a framework that offers safer atmosphere to align South
Gippsland Highway with the current highway. Also, South Gippsland Highway funding was
also managed successfully for this specific work and not all region due to partnership of
Major Road Projects Victoria and Regional Alliance partner Fulton Hogan for safety
upgrades (Gippsland Farmer, 2022). Thus, no issue related to safety, project upgrade activity
was measured here respectively.
Cost overrun or schedule delays for the case project
The cost overruns are identified for South Gippsland Highway as number changes took place
within project schedule which increased budget adversely. For example, time overruns
occurred due to number of reasons which included lack of project implementation agencies,
delay in acquisition of land, lack of forest and environment clearance policies, and no
infrastructure support for accomplishing traffic changes (India, 2022). The new changes in
freight installation also have strained project finance as well as effected site design changes
into engineering process. As a result, impact could be seen on schedule delays which overall
increase launch time till 2022 for next phases.
Part C
Summary of Part I and Part II Improvements
South Gippsland Highway project will connect the other routes so that infrastructure develops
in Victoria. This project was approved to develop the link between Old Koonwarra-Meeniyan

Road and Minns Road. The first part described the project delivery method, bidding process,
and current project updates for briefing. The project delivery method and bidding strategies
could be improved by identifying its stages, selection criteria, and strategies respectively
(Rose, 2014). These improvements from previous work will help in the project’s delivery in
the future.
The design-build method has stages including a selection of the team, project planning,
designing, developing guaranteed maximum price, and construction (Chen et al., 2016). All
these steps should be completed for a design-build method to implement for South Gippsland
Highway. Furthermore, the criteria for choosing the design-build process should be taken into
consideration. Criteria include lack of technical knowledge, project status (complex or
simpler), project type (smaller, middle, and larger), multiple changes and variations,
integration of design and construction as well as priority for time, scope, and money
(Ghamdamsi, 2016). In this case, the criteria for the method are that project is large,
technically complex, quick start, as well as direct communication. Therefore, being a large
and complex public infrastructure project, the design-build procurement was found
appropriate here.
Whereas, the bidding strategy adopted previously directly aligns with the project delivery
method. It is important to improve strategies that could be applicable for selecting and
rewarding contracts to contractors as per the design-build method. Although design-build
does not have traditional bidding processes however the proposal was selected based on
environmental concerns and land usage as per traditional custodians of the Bunurong people.
To improve the bidding process, the internal factor could be taken into consideration to
analyse the contractor company’s experience on projects such as business benefits, financing,
characteristics of the company, and experience (Wibowo et al., 2015). Thus, with this
strategy CPB contractors have rewarded the project as their proposal was very effective and
approachable. Besides, they won contracts due to previous experience in large public
infrastructure and handling budgets with timely delivery.
Discussion and Findings
South Gippsland Highway project will help in reducing the road crashes, safety concerns, and
flight delays on the route Koonwarra and Meeniyan Road towards Minns Road by allowing
safety measures. This project will reduce fatality crashes observed by the South Gippsland

highway council. As per figure 1, a project aimed to reduce fatalities and serious injuries by
over 30% 20% reduction in deaths, and a 15% reduction in serious injury over five years.
Figure 1. Fatal Crashes to Reduction Model at South Gippsland Shire Source (South
Gippsland Shire Council, 2019)
CPB Contractors is an Australian company that was rewarded with this project because they
propel the project delivery promptly with sincerity and sustainable return on investments in
public infrastructure. The design and delivery method for the project was a design-build
contract made between the Victorian Government and CPB contractors with $115 million.
This company was given a contract due to their company performance and background in
previous works. Figure 2 shows, revenue generation full yearly in the year 2022.
Figure 2. Revenue Generation CPB Contractors Source (CIMIC CBP Contractors, 2021)
The schedule and cost overruns issues were not identified much for this project because of
the contractor's team’s extremely well-planned performance. However, some major
challenges could hamper delays in project activities. For instance, evaluation is required for
issues such as the absence of any project agencies, land delay due to disinterest of Bunurong
people, as well as political changes and agreement with forest and environment clearance

policies. Therefore, the focus should be on dealing with project planning, budget, and
scheduling requirements in public infrastructure projects.
Risk Analysis
Risk analysis is an important observation that will help in dealing with issues identified in
infrastructure projects. An infrastructure project if underdeveloped insufficient could end in
multiple concerns including budget overruns, scope creep, delays, lack of procurement, as
well as unavailability of private financing (Beckers and Stegemann, 2013). For this reason,
the risk register below identifies major risks in South Gippsland Highway project and its
mitigation plan to overcome them.
ID Risk
Description
Likelihood
Out of 5
Impact
Out of 5
Severity
Likelihood*
Impact
Owner Mitigation Plan
RQ1 Budget Overrun 4 5 20 Project
Sponsor
Plan cost evaluation and
cost-benefit analysis for
project activities.
RQ2 Scope Creep
and project
delays
3 5 15 Project
Manager
Extensive research for
delays such as weather
conditions, and PID
documentation
RQ3 Frequent design
variations
3 4 12 Designer and
Architect
Distinguish project
requirements in the initial
phase as no customer
involvement is allowed. A
project management
method approach should
be adopted for avoiding
various and unnecessary
changes.
RQ4 Procurement
failures
3 2 6 Contractor Adopt a procurement and
contract method in the
beginning stage. A fixed-
price contract is applicable
here.
Lack of
financial
4 2 8 Project
Manager
Negotiate with investors
by showing them

investors impressive proposals and
project requirements
aligned with fatal incident
reduction.
Land dispute 3 2 6 Project
Manager
Bunurong people should
be engaged in community
feedback surveys after the
first half of the project is
delivered.
Political issues
for the
environment
and forest
clearance
1 2 2 Project
Manager
Plan requirements as per
forest and environment
policies implemented in
South Gippsland council
shire.
Table 1. Project Risks Identified for Public Infrastructure Project South Gippsland Highway
Source (Rafindadi et al., 2014)
Conclusion
In brief, South Gippsland Highway project offers a new section to connect Koonwarra and
Meeniyan routes. This project was offered to CPB contractors for delivery as per planned
requirements. Not many issues are identified in schedule or cost delays due to strategic
planning taken into consideration. Also, procurement options were designed and built
methods that provide the whole responsibility of delivery to CBP contractors respectively.
The summary of previous versions identifies that bidding processes should be more extended
with their processes including proposal selection. However, there could be risks associated
with construction activities for which mitigation techniques must be adopted. For example,
risks included political risks, lack of technical expertise, no financial capital, cost overrun,
and failed procurement. To remove this concern, the risk register showcases mitigation and
contingency planning which if risk appeared could be managed. Hence, the discussion and
findings state that a project becomes more successful if all important considerations related to
public infrastructure projects are undertaken.
Recommendations
After analyzing the project’s pertaining risks related to schedule delays, and cost overruns
some major recommendations are proposed in this section. Considering this is a mega

project, some research should be done for preparation in planning scheduling and cost
evaluation as well as management processes should be structured in construction (Al-Hazim
et al., 2017). Also, planning should be done by forecasting weather conditions to avoid any
unnecessary clash. The second recommendation is that project schedule management could
be done by project management agencies. They offer a competent planning team that is
accurate in developing the master plan and applying it in each stage from design
conceptualization to project closeout (Al-Keim, 2017).
The lack of proper information on environment and forest regulations as well as land or
ground conditions could also delay the schedule (Shrestha, Burns, and Shields, 2013). The
approvals must be sanctioned by locals and the government before proceeding is another
recommendation. Design changes in extensive projects will also increase the total cost of
implementation. For this reason, the recommendation will be the adoption of the integrated
project delivery (IPD) approach which increases collaborative decisions among stakeholders
at the project design’s early start (Durdyev et al., 2019). Henceforth, to overcome schedule
delays and overruns in the South Gippsland highway project, it is important to focus on
implementing extra efforts in the planning and construction stage.

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