Final Project Proposal: Implementing School Construction Projects in a Stability Program

1. Project Management Application School Project Case Study

1.1 Competitive situation As capital continues to upsurge in Afghanistan the building construction industry is projected to sprout as construction businesses and other international organizations bring in international designers, constructors and experts as well as other building construction companies from Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas. All these companies, INGOs and other private groups are employing local designers and builders, and providing training and capacity building in project management applications for construction. Issues merit considerations are corruption within Afghanistans building construction industry and the overall security problems that continues to engulf this central Asian nation. Corruption, which sometimes involves international partners, is on the rise requiring so much control and hold points that not only extends project completion timeframe but has also demanded the presence of international experts putting high the cost of building construction project making the budget of two schools to fit into the cost of one school; denying several communities direct access to education facilities. Afghanistan building construction industry has grown progressively for the past ten years, and continues to grow because of the billion of dollars being pumped into the country to improve civil infrastructure and buildings. Construction works are ongoing because of international aid and it is projected the Afghan economy will still carry out construction. However, what is certain is the country's economy and security will remain entwined, with neither one being secured without the other (John Sullivan, 2011). For this proposal school construction project, the competitive situation is even more pertinent as the location for the school is security and culturally pruned. In eastern Afghanistan the culture of the people demand employing people from the region, be they qualified or corrupt. Most contractors, designers and constructors alike, carry similar performance expertise and the only criteria mainly considered during vetting are anti-terrorist affiliation, anti-corruption records, the working strategy and performance record, and financial stability and capacity. See the typical SWOT analysis of Afghanistan Construction Industry the process of design and construction as well as project management and construction management and contracting.

Strength The procurement method of designbid-build has improve the complex trade-offs between the environment, physical design and the methods used in construction The private and public sectors are both boost of large cash investment The level of education in the Afghan construction market is growing high with local designers, engineers and constructors There is a need for regional and international comparison of performance Threat The construction market is becoming over capacitated with foreign companies making the competition between players keen and marginally low Construction clients are becoming over powerful putting pressure on contractors price and margin Competition from overseas is increasing rapidly The continuous threat of insecurity from insurgence group is making contractors to increase cost of risk and extend construction timeframe by 50%

Weakness Construction contractors are known for the reputation of trying to buy contracts by paying for tender/bid documents and lowering prices Local contractors have less inhouse design and construction and contract engineering capabilities than their international counterparts The level of research and development expenditure in the Afghan construction industry is lower than other countries in the region Opportunities The need for infrastructure is very high therefore increasing the prospect of a sustained economic growth Construction contractors are becoming more customer oriented, which in turn reduces disputes and claims and reworks The use of several international building codes and standard provides the means to create a standardized code and industry policy and strategy for Afghanistan There is the opportunity to improve the business process of lean thinking, value stream and BIM integration into design and construction

1.1.1

Business Need The need for school buildings in Afghanistan cannot be overemphasized as the country, under the Taliban rule underwent maintenance neglect and also the country had gone through a devastating civil war that damaged nearly 90% of the civil engineering system (The USAID, 2006) For this proposed school construction there were readily available information of existing terrain and conditions of the projects proposed location. The construction project manager had to rely on verbal information concerning soil condition, earthquake and ground movement intensities.

However, the opportunity provided was the construction engineers used the community leaders proposal as a design concept and collaborated with UNICEF, other education infrastructure service providers to develop a more defined technical design. Another key opportunity was the regulations to use community leaders design brought together the leaders and members of the construction project managers design team and local leaders in a forum that allow the design team to train the local leaders in the processes of construction project inception, feasibility and strategy development. Through these forums future proposals coming from community leaders became more defined and entails most the information needed to establish a business case and plan, execute, monitor and control and close the school building project successfully. 1.1.2 Business Case The projected cost for this project is $120,000.00 (One Hundred and twenty Thousand US Dollars), with an anticipated duration of six months to complete. Quality standards for this school construction are that is must meet the minimum standards provided by the governments Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Developments school location regulations and facility requirements, such as a mosque on campus. It is to be built to the International Building Code and meet minimum American Concrete Institutes earthquake engineering structural specifications. The project performance criteria includes:

Requirements the community must propose the school; the school must be endorsed by the governments ministry of Education. These terms are nonnegotiable Goals the design team worked with the community to develop the final design; the site and design and construction meets the minimum environmental protection conditions; the students and school administration appreciate and approve the end product. Targets the acres of land provided for the school is the minimum enclosure; the contractor works hand-in-hand with the community leaders in selecting workers and local materials; the test results indicate the parameters targeted during design; and the funder, students, school administration, government and community leaders are involved in monitoring and controlling the achievement of requirements, goals and indicators Key performance indicators the community leaders express appreciation for the school and do continue taking their grievances to the government; and the sources of instability and insurgent activities decreased.

The success criteria for the school construction project was that is should be accepted and appreciated and used for the intended purpose by the community; and people of the community on the increase turned away from seeking assistance from the Taliban. 1.2 Project Scope of Work

The prosed project shall design and construct a Senior High School facility that shall include six classrooms, a library, 3 offices, a drinking water, three separate restrooms, garbage disposal unit, a mosque, playground and assembly point, a parking lot, a boundary with vehicles and pedestrian gates, furniture and a made-simple operations and maintenance training program and manual. The project shall be titled: Proposed Asadabad High School Construction Project. The lead agency is Development Alternatives Initiatives (DAI) and the name of the project manager is John Constance.

1.3 Project Organisation, The range of structures requires distinctive requirements (Sommer, 2009). This project is organized under the following phases, and activities and roles and responsibilities: PHASE 1 -SITUATIONAL AWARENESS (ON-GOING) The construction project manager is not involved as this phase in conducted by the community leader and lead agency program management team. PHASE 2 -ACTIVITY SELECTION (24 HRS TO 2 WEEKS) - The construction project manager is also not involved as the community leaders and lead agency program management team do responsibilities PHASE 3 -ACTIVITY DEVELOPMENT (1 TO 4 WEEKS) - The construction project manager establishes the design team and collaborates with the community leaders and conduct detailed field and site assessment and develop the detailed technical design PHASE 4 -ACTIVITY APPROVAL (2 DAYS TO 1 WEEK) - clearing and emailing PDF, CSV, and budget; updating DSF Book, confirming receipt, updating activity Tracker. The project construction manages is not involved in the process. PHASE 5 IMPLEMENTATION (DEPENDS ON ACTIVITY) - The construction project manager conducts construction supervision and check quality and environmental mitigation efforts and submits progress reports to grants management team. PHASE 6 -EVALUATION AND CLOSEOUT (1 TO 2 WEEKS) - initiating close-out report; reviewing program and financial documentation, evaluating project implementation reports against impacts identified in DSF effects matrix, The construction project manager is not involved.

Typical Work Breakdown Structure:

As seen in the project organization construction project teams are not involved in all phases and project organization activities. Within the context of the project organization, construction projects are organized into three phases, the environmental management, engineering documentation and construction implementation. See the typical WBS for construction projects in Appendix 1. 1.3.1 Stakeholder Analysis and Map The key stakeholders for this project include the community leaders, the school administration, and the national government. Others include USAID, UNICEF, and DAI. The community leaders, school administration, and the national government are all beneficiaries. Others include USAID the project funder for design and construction, UNICEF the project operations and maintenance funder, and DAI the construction project management contractor. Beneficiaries priorities include the community must propose the school; the school must be endorsed by the governments ministry of Education; there must be mosque in the school grounds, all materials and skills available in the community must be used by the contractor and the school must be enclosed with a boundary wall. These terms are non-negotiable. The funder priorities include construction management team work with the community to develop the final CFS design; the site and design and construction meets the minimum environmental protection conditions and American standards; the community accepts and use the facility as intended; and increase seeking assistance from the national government, and increased stability and no insurgency in the community; the school have a O&M training program and manual. Construction project management contractor subcontractor selected in an open and collaborative effort; all quality plans are achieved, the funder and beneficiaries accept the facilities and all audits are declared satisfactory. 1.4 Legal and Regulatory Environment In the project area, it is not required that an engineer be licensed. However, all relevant design codes, standards and permitting is required, and there exist several qualified design and construction professionals in the country allowing for design and construction services to be procured in-country. It is a legal requirement that all projects undergo environmental screening and produce mitigation measures for both environmental and social issues. There is also adequate capacity and resources available in the project areas and its environs.

The project stakeholders must be identified including the funder, construction management services provider, contractors and infrastructure or building owner. All works must be coordinated with all stakeholders. There must be written agreement with the building owner obligating each party to accept and approve the project technical design, attend inspections and create punch listings, sign certificates and handover documents 1.5 Contracting processes, approaches, and documents This project uses the two-stage tendering process using firm fixed-price contracting approach and documents, and combines the labor laws of Afghanistan with legal and contractual regulations and laws of the United States of America. The documents reflect common assent, consideration, capability and aptitudes of the parties, and lawful object (Lowe, 2007). The typical documentation includes the contract agreement, broadspectrum specification and scope of work, general conditions of the contract, special conditions of the contract and various administrative and coordination procedures required under the agreement. However, due to the numerous insecurity in the project locations, and the continuous recording of property theft which lead to lost by the sub-contractor, and the continuous stop of works due to floods and heavy rain and winter snow and snow melts; and that Afghanistan happens to be a muslin country, it is recommended the contracts be of the commercial type of contracts used in muslin countries (McCormack, 2009), this will not only reduce or eliminate disputes and claims but improve the contractual relationship and help to increase stability amongst or from all Afghan parties involved in the project. 1.6 Project information technology The project information technology requirements include the use of technical drawing software and Microsoft office package. Some of these document must be converted to PDF formats to enable interpretations by other software. In this project all information used is entered using computer program software tools. This includes AutoCAD for the production of technical drawings, Microsoft Word for environmental screening checklist and environmental mitigation management plan, Microsoft Excel for bill of quantities and budget, and work plan or schedules. The AutoCAD drawings must be converted to PDF format for the client review and the environmental management documents must also be converted to PDF after preparation and approval signatures have been inserted. Other technology infrastructure that could have included Microsoft Project, Primavera, Building information Modeling and other civil design softwares. These were considered too complex, as clients representatives with approving authorities have no knowledge

of using these softwares. It is recommended that these softwares be part of the training budget to enable the processing of design and structural analysis and calculations to be done swiftly and with more accuracy. 1.7 Project site organization The project construction site is organized by first and foremost defining the site organization structure including roles, responsibilities, tasks, and accountabilities specification, temporary services, site layout design and required equipment and facilities, all the permits and paperwork, traffic management, public protection, materials storage and waste management and all the legal health and welfare requirements for construction sites.

2.

Proposed Approach The project approach is the design-bid-build approach because there is an effective internal engineering team to prepare design and conduct construction management. The inherent values in this approach The inherent value of using the design-bid-build approach for this project is that it involved the clients internal engineering team and the end-user/owner design team from the community and the construction services of a contracted constructor. This created a lot of communication between the end-users and the designer during the design stage and the three parties collaborating during the construction stage thereby eliminating design changes, and the risk and uncertainties of producing the school as planned, delivering the project under budget. However, the construction project manager collaboration with the community leaders in developing an extensive risk-management plan during feasibility and strategy prior to construction had its risks to the project's success. This risk inherent in this service and product characteristics included the project market, locally available technology, and security risks. This is the main risk involved in completing the project anf would not only cause delays but reckon the project incomplete. This risk event did occur during the project implementation and did make the project complete beyond its planned end date, but this did not impact cost as payments to the contractor as agreed in the contract was based on productivity achieved.

2.1

Quality management Quality Policy focuses on compliance with requirements that ensures no subproject activities cause significant impacts to Afghanistans physical and social environment; all infrastructure design and standards are compliant with Afghanistan National Solidarity Program Technical Manual; and all quality systems applied is compliant with quality policies based on the ISO 9000 quality management principles and DAI/USAIDs other policies.

Quality Assurance sets the project quality objectives, specifies the project operational processes and resources needed to achieve those objectives, which is achieving the programmed acceptable levels of functionality in building construction, the review and sign-off of all deliverables or work conducting all required testing of soil, water, and concrete slump and compression and steel yield. Quality control is be based on the quality standards of Afghanistan NSP Technical Manual; British Standards Institute (BSI); the USACE Standards; Uniform Building Code; ISO 9000 quality management principles; and USAID environmental screening reporting form procedures. 3. Procurement

The supply chain key objective is to satisfy the project specifications and standards of quality, and the customers or community end-users. The flow of activities includes the internal functions of the companys procurement department that was responsible to ensure the contractor purchased all local materials (aggregates, bricks, etc.) directly from the community. All logistics including the supply of local materials is the full responsibility of the contractor. This also included the distribution, sourcing, services, sales, manufacturing and accounting of all supplies. The structure of the supply chain is repetitive and standalone, but standardized. All supply chain management was the liabilities of the contractor as this was spelled out in the contract ensuring all risks involved was covered in the contract cost. The supply chain organization was planned and shared with the contract owner and the community representatives whom were all obligated to ensure the chain was never broken due their condition of support and was to compensate the contractor if this was the case; and the contractor was to cover additional risk costs if delays were from its ineffectiveness. 4. Project Closeout

Commissioning was part and parcel of the project contract requirements. Testing was conducted by a separate contractor clothed with the responsibility of confirming that the various building components did indeed meet required or contracted specifications. The contract did not require the subtraction of a percentage retention fee, but rather the contractor delivered a performance bond equivalent to ten percent of the contract value that was kept for expenditure in case the contractor that not correct identified defects before the contract closeout. The defects were identified during the inspection of every milestone deliverable required before each payment term, giving the contractor ample time to make the corrections. At the time of substantial completion the contractor turns the school over the authorities for occupation while main defects rectifications. During occupation the school authorities was observed in its use of the facility and also allowed to develop a punchlist approved by the contractor and contract owner; and demanded the contractor make said rectifications until the end of the defects and liability period (60 days), after which time a

final completion certificate is issued to the contractor whom performance bond still remain as a guarantee until the end of the retention bond period after which time when the facility was declared non-defective by both the school authorities and contract owner the bond was returned to the contractor and the contract closed. 5. Project Conclusion

The effective practices on future school construction projects should include the constructors in the design process as it was seen from this project that there were many construction suggestions from the contractor that could have been included in the design but was not the case as the contract owner and community authorities, having agreed to the suggestions rejected making design changes in order to not delay the production and use of the school due to the pressure of getting the community stable. Other areas of improvement include the use of softwares such as Revit Architecture, Civil 3D, Primavera, and BIM. Other innovative considerations would be getting the student directly involved in the design concept and brief development and considering green design incorporated in the overall school design. The most efficient approaches should include the use of the total design concept that will enable the designers to integrate not only the design and construction but also the numerous culture factors that is appreciated by the community targeted for stability by means of construction project management.

Bibliography A Guide to Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) Fourth Edition 2008 Project Management Institute, 14 Campus Blvd., Newton Square, PA 190733299, USA David Scott, Michael Kwan Wah Cheong and Heng Li, (2009) Web-based construction information management systems [Online] Available from: http://www.icoste.org/ICMJ %20Papers/AJCEBVol3No1Scott.pdf John Sullivan (2011) An Economic Handover in Afghanistan [Online] Available from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-sullivan/an-economic-handover-ina_b_842196.html Lester, A. (2007) Project management, planning and control: managing engineering, construction and manufacturing projects to PMI, APM and BSI standards. 5th ed. Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann, pp.17-19.

Sommer, H. (2009) Tasks of project management In: Project management for building construction. 3rd ed. London: Springer, pp.95-159. The USAID (2006) Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) [Online] Available from: http://transition.usaid.gov/index.html UNICEF (2008) Child-friendly schools (CFS) [Online] Available from: http://www.unicef.org/esaro/5481_child_friendly_schools.html USAID/Afghanistan (2012) manual for Construction Methods for Building in Afghanistan [Online] Available from: http: //pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADK928.pdf