CHAPTER 9

Understanding Project Delivery

Every airport should have a documented project delivery process that outlines their needs for organizing and prioritizing projects, making financial investment decisions related to their design and construction projects, and their subsequent needs for these constructed assets once they are completed and move into the operation and maintenance phase. Processes should also be developed for how maintenance activities are defined to ensure the constructed assets fulfill functional requirements and expected service life. SOPs should be considered for specifying how BIM should be used in design and construction—or for that matter in the airport’s asset management program or document management system. Another consideration would be to develop a drawing document (CAD) standard if your airport is not yet ready for BIM. Other SOPs might address document management and outline how documents should be archived so that your airport staff can easily find them in the future. Such a procedure should help lessen the amount of time required to research as long as the SOP defines a consistent practice for document archival that all users can become acquainted with and use effectively. Reducing the time it takes to find needed documents has the potential to reduce your TCO and operation. SOPs require an investment of time and should be developed or drafted prior to the start of your next large capital program as illustrated in Figure 6. Airport staff (assuming they will remain somewhat consistent) can learn from their experience on a project and apply what they have learned on subsequent projects.

Even if the design and construction process is repeated multiple times a year at an airport, conducting this process and making the necessary decisions is not easy. All constructed assets (e.g., buildings, roadways, airfields), start as an idea that evolves into a project. Renovations to existing facilities also start in this fashion. This design and construction process is consistent regardless of project size and has a sequence of phases—planning, design, construction, and owner occupancy and operation. Airport projects each have stakeholders, and some stakeholders participate in every airport project. Developing internal SOPs and standards (as shown in Figure 7) that address the expectations for project planning, BIM and CAD, design guidelines or specifications, project meetings, asset data, asset information handover, asset management requirements, and more, will all help enhance your bottom line.

Airports invest a considerable amount of time and money in repairing, renovating, and replacing or otherwise updating their facilities to ensure the airport remains operational. In general, all these activities and processes are brought together in “project delivery.” It is the process of creating, delivering, and managing a constructed asset.

Planning and Design Phase

Projects begin with some level of planning or identification of a need—the originator’s idea. This is also when an airport should begin to consider the impact on O&M that the asset(s) developed as part of the project will have. Even during these early phases of a project, airport

stakeholders should become involved and voice their requirements and concerns about the project. Data attributes of the soon-to-be constructed assets should be identified by maintenance and asset management staff so that these attributes can be required as part of the construction project closeout documents or BIM deliverables and will thereby benefit end users upon project completion and asset information handover. There is an assumption that these data attributes will be defined and included within the project closeout specifications and made a requirement as part of this process. Figure 8 illustrates the various phases of planning and design.

Construction Phase

Development of processes and procedures, including identification of the requirements to be incorporated into Division 01 project closeout specifications, is of great significance to asset information handover success. It is extremely important that when a project is completed, an airport gets the information needed to be able to maintain and manage its newly constructed and acquired asset(s).

The data that you require should be defined in the Division 01 project closeout sections and other contractually binding documents so that these requirements can be understood by the construction team. Only data that is needed for your staff to fulfill their responsibilities should be required at project closeout. Further, this data should be delivered promptly at project closeout because some new assets need immediate attention. Finally, the data should be accurate so that it can be relied on.

Airport stakeholders need to be active participants in project meetings so that they understand what is being built or installed and because they need to share their wants and needs for the project. It is also important to attend as many meetings as possible to keep up-to-date on any changes. What was agreed to during design might not be what ends up being constructed, and this can impact a stakeholder’s role and responsibility for a constructed asset. Another benefit of attending meetings during actual construction is that this is an opportunity for airport staff to become acquainted with manufacturer requirements for maintenance and to ensure warranties stay valid, in advance of project closeout and owner occupancy. Figure 9 illustrates the various phases of construction.

Obtaining the project closeout information is a formidable task, especially if the process is not initiated during the initial phases of any project. Depending on the magnitude of the project, an owner’s representative might be contracted to oversee the collection of the required closeout information and actual compliance and completion. For smaller projects, airports should consider designating an internal staff member to ensure that appropriate documents are collected, electronic files are saved, record documents are updated during construction, and staff training is provided.

Project Closeout

Project closeout is important because it represents the last phase of any project (planning, design, construction, commissioning, and owner occupancy and operation), and the handover of your asset information is part of project closeout. At project closeout, airport staff should

be able to identify areas for improvement and, if they take the time to revise existing SOPs or establish new ones based on their project experiences, they can benefit from the lessons learned.

A properly documented and adhered-to closeout process will allow an airport owner to say the project is complete and bring closure to the airport’s financial and contracting processes. This is the last phase of all activities related to project management. Properly documented project closeout will assure all stakeholders, including upper airport management, that the project has been completed with no surprises.

Some key benefits of the closeout process include confirmation that the project’s objectives have been met, that airport staff has been appropriately trained on the use of newly installed equipment, that all the planned work, including follow-up “punch list” requirements, has been completed, and that the design and construction documents are accounted for and archived in the airport’s document management system for future reference by internal departments. Do not forget about commissioning of the project to ensure that all systems are functioning as intended, for this is another benefit of the closeout process. Figure 10 illustrates the various phases of typical project commissioning.

Another activity airport staff should undertake during project closeout is the documentation of lessons learned from the project. To facilitate this documentation, it might be helpful for the airport to develop requirements and a process for reflecting on the conduct of a project and capturing lessons learned. Staff can learn from the airport’s successes and failures whether these are in their internal departmental requirements and interactions or relationships with design and construction teams. This learning will benefit future projects and project delivery. Airport staff should revise their processes to ensure such lessons become a part of the next design and construction endeavor.

Sometimes airport departments undertake smaller projects internally and never communicate to other stakeholders that they have undertaken a project. In such a case, airport stakeholders may not even realize that the project has been undertaken let alone completed until it “magically” appears in financial systems as an asset or in a request to maintenance staff for repair when some component breaks. Developing an SOP will not eliminate such cases from occurring, but will help staff get on board with the process and associated communications because they will know who should be informed of what, why, and when. Newly created assets will eventually require maintenance, and the existence of the asset should not come as a surprise to the maintenance team.

Depending upon the project size, consider phased closeout deliverables or verification of project closeout development by the airport stakeholders. Make all stakeholders aware of the

construction contract requirements for project closeout and asset information handover. Ensure your larger capital programs require incremental deliverables, rather than waiting until the absolute completion of the program, which could be years from the initial or actual groundbreaking. If there is only one set of project closeout deliverables, yet the airport occupies the project incrementally, some of the assets could be experiencing varying degrees of maintenance needs for years, including failing, without the airport having collected any asset information to utilize in the interim. Knowing and understanding contract requirements for project closeout is of great importance, and project stakeholders should be made aware of and have the ability to influence phase-related asset information handover requirements.

Some of the activities typically associated with project closeout include the following:

• Commissioning activities, including:
  • System startup
  • Testing, adjusting, and balancing of systems and equipment
  • Demonstration of the newly installed systems and equipment and associated training for applicable airport staff
• ORAT
• Final project completion
• Asset information handover: the project record documents, required project closeout submittals

Operational Readiness, Activation, and Transition

Another, typically separate, element of major capital projects is an investment in an ORAT team (Figure 11 illustrates ORAT activities). Implementing or embracing ORAT will enable an airport to operate a newly constructed asset/facility upon project closeout. The aim of operational readiness is to help ensure airport staff understands how to operate a new facility at a level over and above the more traditional and expected level of testing, commissioning, and staff training that has been a part of construction projects. In addition, operational readiness addresses staff comfort with operational environment variables.

For the successful transfer of any project from construction to ownership and operations, airport staff should also ensure that maintenance staffing requirements are understood and that current staff participates in project closeout training. ORAT has typically been associated with major capital programs and can be extremely beneficial for large design and construction projects. However, airports also undertake hundreds of smaller projects. Sometimes several are happening simultaneously, and exposure to ORAT concepts could help staff better understand

what the specified extra stock and materials will look like (and where these items will be warehoused), participate in the training that is provided by manufacturers’ representatives, witness the applicable system startup or demonstrations, and ensure that the provided project closeout and related as-built record documents (as part of asset information handover) fulfill their specified requirements.

Project closeout processes, assuming they are successful, can be deemed a major accomplishment, but receiving a constructed asset and project closeout documentation does not mean that the organization has achieved operational readiness, nor will it guarantee the organization has accurate asset information handover documents and data. The concepts behind ORAT address how an airport organization’s staff members understand the operation of their newly created assets, how to use these assets, and how to care for them (preventive maintenance activities). ORAT aims to prepare airport staff to operate a newly constructed asset on its opening day. Achieving a high level of operational readiness should be a goal for practically every project in addition to achieving complete project closeout deliverables and considering asset information handover a success.

ORAT is a set of processes that will help airport owners and managers be successful with major design and construction projects. Whatever an airport requires as part of its asset information handover for design and construction projects, the ability to manage the successful transition of these requirements and ultimately operate the facility is paramount. Proponents of ORAT see it as an integrated framework of processes and procedures that should be performed in addition to the design and construction phases of a project that will help reduce the risks associated with opening a new facility with a complex set of building systems and components. Executing ORAT can provide a smoother transition from the final stages of construction and project closeout to actual ownership and operation. The overall objective of ORAT is to make the transition from asset creation to ownership and operation “effortless,” even though it will still have some hiccups along the way.

ORAT teams address new asset operations so that prior to opening day an asset functions as if it had been in place for years. However, ORAT doesn’t just focus on the functioning of the constructed asset. ORAT includes staff training to ensure that staff members function too and that they understand the situations that might occur with operating the newly constructed asset, as well as issues that might arise long after the design and construction teams are gone.

ORAT should also become part of developed design and construction SOPs. Airports knowing what it is they will eventually own and operate is paramount, and stakeholders should participate throughout the planning, design, and construction phases of most if not all airport projects. Engaging airport stakeholders from the beginning will improve communications, enhance project understanding, and help ensure that stakeholder needs don’t get dropped in the transfer of information from one phase of a project to another. Providing stakeholders the opportunity to be engaged from the start of any project will support trust across all internal groups and eventually improve an airport’s return on investment by reducing the probability of changes during construction and thereby reducing the post-opening modifications.

Closeout and Asset Information Handover

While the activities previously mentioned are a part of project delivery, airport owners and managers need to pay close attention to and become familiar with each of their projects and the soon-to-be-realized newly constructed assets. Developing standardized procedures that define O&M requirements and the supporting asset management processes will help stakeholders identify the data that is required to support various daily activities. Understanding what you own,

handover during project closeout, at least initially. Maintenance job plans can be revised to reflect the maintenance group’s experience with similar asset types operating in its airport environment. How an airport acquires or develops maintenance job plans is important. A manufacturer’s recommended maintenance is sometimes more than an asset needs, and because the labor and materials for such maintenance must be paid for by the airport, maintenance groups may revise the original job plan to perform less maintenance than recommended by the manufacturer. The maintenance group should not do this in a case where performing the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance is required to keep the warranty valid. Maintenance activities also include unplanned repairs that some refer to as corrective or reactive maintenance.

Operations and capital planning staff must plan for asset renewals—the replacement of building systems and equipment items that do fail or will near their supposed end-of-life. An airport’s approach to O&M activities has to be based on the available resources and a strategy to keep the airport operational.

Maintenance strategies can range from a “run to failure” approach to a mix of reactive (must repair or replace something immediately) and proactive types of maintenance activities. This latter group has several differing definitions or approaches that include interval-based, preventive maintenance activities (e.g., every month), condition-based decisions on maintenance (based on an observed condition or situation), or predictive maintenance (based on an asset’s history of downtime or performance). Regardless of an airport’s resources for conducting maintenance, the staff has to manage constructed assets to maximize their function and reliability, or uptime, to support airport operations.

Life-Cycle Operations and Maintenance

As noted in Chapter 8, it is generally understood within the asset management industry that the cost to operate and maintain a constructed asset or facility is about 70 to 80 percent of its “total cost.” Understanding what life-cycle costs are comprised of is important.

Numbers will vary depending upon the source and the asset type, but the costs associated with the design and construction of an asset represent approximately 20 to 25 percent of the total cost of the asset throughout its life. The additional costs that comprise TCO, as illustrated

in Figure 13, are those that occur and are required to operate and maintain the asset. Examples include utilities, labor, and asset renewals and upgrades that typically happen throughout a constructed asset’s life. Some organizations will also distribute overhead costs such as insurance and include those costs as part of TCO.

The cost associated with O&M requires an understanding of the constructed assets that an airport organization is responsible for. This is one reason for developing and embracing an asset information handover procedure. Life-cycle O&M is the ability to effectively operate, maintain, and periodically improve or renovate your facilities to ensure airport operations and to provide a safe, reliable environment for passengers, tenants, and employees.

Computerized Maintenance Management

Some airport organizations have incorporated various software systems into their everyday activities to support their responsibilities. Several, especially larger organizations, have embraced and implemented geographic information systems (GIS), CMMSs, or EAM systems to manage maintenance activities and BIM as a project closeout deliverable. In some instances, these software systems have been used to support planning capital reinvestment cycles. By incorporating software tools into their processes, an airport can track the progress of upcoming design and construction projects and where these projects are located (via GIS), understand the proximity of one project to another, check on the status of maintenance work orders, and view maintenance issues quickly. Additionally, software tools can associate the costs related to those activities and can even develop reports forecasting future-year investments.

Software systems can be useful tools when implemented, integrated, and utilized correctly because they can provide valuable information to all levels of management. Doing so, however, requires internal standards and an understanding at all levels of management of roles and responsibilities for each respective process governing the use of the software system. As software tools become more of the norm, especially in project closeout and asset information handover, and as airports become more accustomed to embracing and successfully using technology, these tools will help improve airport staff’s ability to operate, maintain, and manage the various building and facility system assets. This will be due in large part to the increased amount of accurate information about these constructed assets now readily available at their fingertips.