Newcastle Light Rail – NLR

Project Overview

The Newcastle Light Rail project involves the construction of a new light rail network through the Newcastle CBD. The 2.7 km route runs from Newcastle Interchange to Pacific Park in Newcastle East, just 200m from Newcastle Beach. The Newcastle Light Rail’s design encourages the continued economic growth of the City of Newcastle, linking city precincts and making the diverse parts of the city more readily accessible. It is projected to form the centrepiece of a fully integrated public transport network to be delivered by Newcastle Transport, making it a high priority project for the city.

TBH’s Role

TBH was engaged to provide project controls services with a focus on planning and scheduling, cost management and reporting.

The brief was to assist the Managing Contractor (MC) in their efforts to fulfil their project controls obligations under the contract. Specifically, this was to achieve a fully compliant baseline project schedule that:

• Achieved the contract milestone dates
• Met TfNSW standards with regards to durations, logic, constraints, etc.
• Met TfNSW requirements to be resource and cost-loaded
• Aligned WBS with CBS, which were also aligned to TfNSW product codes
• Could be used to calculate earned value
• Integrated approvals, design, procurement, construction, commissioning and handover
• Reflected the planned delivery methodology and staging of the works
• Had a reasonable critical path

In order to achieve this goal, TBH worked with both the MC and TfNSW through one-on-one and workshop engagements to win the trust of stakeholders, obtain input and establish ownership of outputs for a best-for-project result.

Once the baseline was achieved, TBH also assisted the parties to re-baseline the cost-loaded schedule to understand the effect of a major scope variation and achieve approval of the change.

Benefits:

• The TfNSW Newcastle PMO achieved INSW gate approval and funds were released for the delivery of the project
• Key risks, constrains and opportunities were identified and workshopped, and incorporated into the schedule and budget forecasts
• Better cash flow and at-completion forecasts were derived along with forecasts to complete
• Earned value reporting was established
• The MC project team gained a much better understanding of TfNSW requirements and how to achieve compliance
• The MC project team gained a realistic plan to deliver the project and track progress
• The TfNSW project team gained better visibility of how the MC plans to deliver the work and how they are tracking, while providing more confidence that the scope can be delivered on time and on budget

To find out more about TBH’s Integrated Project Controls and Planning & Scheduling experience, please visit the Integrated Project Controls or Planning & Scheduling page.