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The Chunnel Tunnel Project
The Chunnel Tunnel Project
PROJECT
(A Case Study)
Largest construction project built by a private consortium, involving French & British
Government
MAJOR CHALLENGES
• Cooperation of two national governments
• Bankers underwriting the funding for the project
• Numerous Contractors
• Several regulatory agencies
• Overlapping design and construction
• Under ground construction
The Chunnel Tunnel Project
COMPLEXITY
Loan financing raised through consortium of 206 banks world wide, making
refinancing complex.
Risk Management 2
Procurement Management 1
Integration Management 2
The Chunnel Tunnel Project
WEEKNESS :
Overall scope of the project was still not fixed, even at the proposed
completion. The project was even rushed to allow operation to begin
before the entire effort was completed.
Lack of detail designing in initial stages.
Focus during the closeout was on attempting to minimize the amount of
claim awarded rather than analyzing the causes of cost overruns.
The ability to make demands for changes (IGC) in the design of the
deliverable without corresponding funding for those changes provides a
perfect setup for challenged results.
Poor Contract Management (fixed rate contracts)
No contingency to cover unknowns.
Structure of Consortium.
Communication in later stages of project.
Over managing risk.
Poor Change control method
The Chunnel Tunnel Project
STRENGTHS:
Quality Management
Communication in initial stage
Progress Monitoring
Planning and scheduling to a large extent.
Exemplary Team work in patches.
State of the art precise engineering.
The Chunnel Tunnel Project
RESULT
19 month delay .
Benchmark quality
The Chunnel Tunnel Project
Success or failure ?
Engineering perspective:
The project was undoubtedly a success as most of the technical problems which
subsequently aroused were associated with regulatory changes.
Customer perspective:
The project could be viewed as a success. The customers also got a new chance of
services from the shuttles at lower prices
Economists perspective:
The project may not be a success. Huge resources have been wasted providing the
expensive piece of infrastructure which provides only a marginal quality of service
advantage