CE5520 Procurement and Contract Management (2021/22)

Coursework Brief

Introduction

The London Borough of Hillingdon (LBH) is looking to build a new, state of the art, STEM
and community recreational centre, as part of its education and social improvement plans.
This centre would consist of modern lecture rooms/facilities, conference halls and a cutting-
edge centre for AI and Machine Learning research. Due to the nature of this centre, the
project has attracted strong interest from Tech Giants. Following consultations, the borough
will be engaging one of such companies, Microsoft Corporation, in the project. Microsoft has
agreed to fund 20% of the project cost provided they have some oversight over the project.

The client (LBH) is particularly keen to see the project offer value for money and that it also
embraces key sustainability goals, such as it being economical, energy efficient, and socially
acceptable.

Project scope

The geotechnical report, following site investigations, revealed that the site for this project is
a formerly mixed-use land- both industrial, residential and ‘brown field’ sites; much of the
land is thought to be contaminated from its former industrial uses. Not surprisingly, the land’s
subsoil condition is weak and unstable, and thus might require complex foundation structure
and ground strengthening systems. The report also showed that an underground high
voltage cable including cable protection structure run in the middle of the site, which will
have to be relocated.

An initial concept design has revealed that the project construction would comprise of a
combination of heavy civil engineering works involving deep excavations, steel-sheet piling,
bored concrete piling, heavy reinforced concrete foundations, a steel frame with hanging
conveyor plant and extensive infrastructure works. These would involve external public
highways, new gas, water and electricity supplies, drainage infrastructure, and on-site
wastewater treatment facilities.

The project design and construction will also comprise of a complex array of mechanical,
electrical and process services machinery. This will cover mechanical and electrical building
services, and the installation and coordination of manufacturing equipment, from cooling
systems to sensor units and robotic machinery. Henceforth, the design is expected to be
characterised by design solutions of high novelty.

In terms of capacity, the centre is expected to hold a maximum of 25,000 people at any
given time. The project, planned to occupy a total land area of 42,000 m2, has an initial
budget limit of £500 million as set by the borough.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept. 1

Key client requirements

The specifics of the client’s brief, which was very sketchy, included the following stipulations:
 The centre be exemplar for access with sustainable strategies and renewable energy
systems implemented throughout;
 The centre should have a minimum 80-years life span, and that, wherever possible,
locally sourced materials are to be used throughout.
 The need for an early start and early completion of the project;
 The need for flexibility and client involvement in the design and construction phases;
 The need for cost certainty and securing of best value are top priorities for the client;
 Ensure effective arrangements to allow for proper consideration of risk and successful
management of the project to achieve the outcome for the client.
 The construction industry is now committed to providing best value for its clients and is
thus keen to see this philosophy adopted by all its consultants.

Coursework

You are a consultant working for an engineering firm that has been contracted by LBH to
manage the project through to completion. You have been asked by the head of the firm to
advise the client on procurement strategies and contract matters for this project.

Prepare a short report to advise the client on:

- appropriate procurement strategy/method and arrangement that is likely to ensure a
successful delivery of this project. Provide detail explanation for the basis of your
recommendations.
- suitable contract type, form of contract, and tendering arrangements to be adopted.

As part of your presentation, it would be useful to describe and critique why some other
procurement methods, contract types and tendering arrangements were not considered
appropriate.

Submission Requirements

1. Each student is required to submit an independent report of no more than 10 pages,

and/or should not exceed 3000 words.

2. This assignment forms 30% of the overall assessment of this module, so it is

important that your report properly address all the submission deliverables listed in
the previous section well.

3. Your work should be presented in a professional standard in all respects. You are
encouraged to present your work using A4 and a Word-Processor.

4. Make whatever assumptions are required. Clearly indicate any sources of information
you have used and provide references accordingly using the referencing system
recommended by the College.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept. 2

 5. The deadline for submission is: Thursday, 10th February 2022 4pm (Week 21), via
WISEflow. Late submission will be subject to current penalty scheme of the College
of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences. ANY EXTENUATING
CIRCUMSTANCES (ECs) must be notified as soon as possible. Failure upload the
report in good time or other machine-related failures will not be deemed as EC.

6. This assignment is not a group work and so must be carried out on an individual
basis and presented independently, although you are allowed to discuss it amongst
yourselves if need be.

7. Remember that Plagiarism is a serious offence, and so any student found to have
submitted a copied text (from a friend’s work or elsewhere externally) will obtain a
zero mark. He/she will also be subjected to a disciplinary action by the College
and/or University. It is also unacceptable to collude by lending your work to a friend
to copy – be careful and do not make your work available to anyone!

8. Please bear in mind that WISEflow has an imbedded similarity checking software,
namely Ouriginal (Urkand), which will automatically run this check on your
submission to give it a similarity score, depending how similar your work is with other
available documents. During marking, this score and/or academic judgement are
often used to pick up any suspected cases of plagiarism, collision or other forms of
academic malpractice for subsequent investigation and possible actions to be meted
out accordingly.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept. 3