Quantum Executive Director, Steven Beaumont, looks at different sectors in the construction industry and discusses how we can all relate to the problems they face more than you might think.
Last year we considered the relationship between construction projects and football and realised there are some similarities with their individual problems. I now want to introduce the next series of articles which are again about construction, but this time we will look at the sectors within the construction industry such as rail, roads and aviation and see how we can compare the problems these sectors have when being built or when in operation, to the problems the public have when using the products of that sector, be it a train a car or an aeroplane.
So, let’s start with trains, driving around Doha we can see the efforts being made to construct the Doha Metro system. Huge machines are involved with the excavations to construct the stations, whilst the tunnelling machines are working away as we go about our daily business.
Now let me tell you, this is a huge and complex construction project with multiples of disciplines working to deliver the rail system, let’s hope they have worked on their risk strategy and are taking records!
I was recently on a train and I have to say it wasn’t a great journey, I was in the UK and quite simply, the train broke down! I wasn’t impressed at all because first of all the train was late, it was cold and raining and I would be late for a meeting in London. Some of you can relate to this can’t you?
I wasn’t alone in being quite angry about this situation: quite a few people on the train were expressing their opinion, and were usually starting with the sentence, “Do you know what …?” You have met these people haven’t you?
“Huge machines are involved with the excavations to construct the stations, whilst the tunnelling machines are working away as we go about our daily business”
I did make a complaint and was fairly compensated, but this didn’t help with my day ahead and this got me thinking about the rail network and where it began and how much the system requires maintenance and looking after. And trust me; I have been a victim of the rail system not having good maintenance on a number of occasions.
The UK’s rail network was built over a hundred years ago, and one particular gentleman was instrumental in this process, he was also instrumental in creating disputes during the building of the railway, his name was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Now don’t get me wrong, his engineering marvels can still be seen today as they were designed to last a long time. But he delivered these without much consideration for the men building the railway, or the contractors that employed them. Of course we have come a long way since then and the engineering technologies employed to construct Qatar’s rail networks are something to be proud of, and we should be.
Because Qatar is nice and warm we won’t have the issue of waiting for a train in the cold, but let’s hope if it is late, the air-conditioning is working. Now, how many of you have been let down by a rail system irrespective of where this may be in the world? You see, these let downs become a long lasting joke. How many of you have travelled on a train and thought, well that was a poor service? Quite a lot I think. But what do we do, do we complain? Sometimes?
You see having a brand new rail system is superb and not only does it transport people around, it takes pressure off the roads and it assists with the economies of the country. But we must remember when traveling on a train a dispute is created by the poor service but the delays are usually due to lack of maintenance, fortunately we can complain and the records of the matter are usually pretty good to prove our point.
In constructing Qatar’s rail system we hope it is delivered safely, on time and budget with no disputes. Remember, disputes are expensive. Once it is delivered the use of the system and the continuous engineering requirements must not be ignored. It’s ok having a brand new railway but what happens if you don’t maintain it? This is similar to a few clients I work for; they have invested in what you might call a maintenance check. This is simply where checks are made on live projects to make sure the records, programmes and correspondence are correct, this saves money and time in the future and can avoid lengthy and expensive disputes.
So having maintenance on a new system is similar to maintenance on a live construction project, if you look after it, service it and maintain it, it might not break down and the trains won’t be late. Similarly if you maintain the contract and the rules on a live construction project it might divert possible disputes. Both concepts are very different, but the principle is the same.
“Having a brand new rail system is superb and not only does it transport people around, it takes pressure off the roads and it assists with the economies of the country”
Steven Beaumont, Executive Director
Steven Beaumont, a Quantum Executive Director, is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Steven has over 20 years of experience in both local and international construction project disputes and regularly delivers construction claims classes and lectures to industry professionals throughout the GCC. QGS is acknowledged as one of the leading management consultancies dedicated to serving the interests of national and international construction and engineering organisations.
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This article was previously published in the February 2015 edition of Business@Qatar Magazine published by the Gulf Times Newspaper