Savings of 18% were made on the Port Talbot Peripheral Distributor Road (PDR) Stage 2 project through a three-stage value engineering process between April 2009 and October 2010. Cutting £15m from the original tender price ensured the project went ahead and continued to receive funding from the Welsh Assembly.
A team from Costain worked with the client, Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council, to review the scheme’s objectives. Value engineering solutions included changing the carriageway foundations from piling to reinforced earth together with surcharge and settlement periods, and amending road layouts to reduce carriageway areas.
“Working with the client, we used a three-stage value engineering process which focused our efforts on ideas that were more likely to deliver value without compromising on quality,” said Charlie Sleep, planner for the scheme.
Mr Sleep said potential savings were initially thrashed out at a project team workshop. The second stage was to develop the ideas and come up with a budget cost and saving for each one within two weeks of the workshop. The third stage was to develop the selected ideas and outline the design before seeking stakeholder approval.
“The three-stage approach ensured that the amount of effort expended on an idea was proportional to the likely savings it would yield, and also that the appropriate level of stakeholder buy-in was achieved at each stage. Throughout the process, we maintained a running total of the potential and achieved savings. This allowed us to determine which ideas were worth pursuing further at each stage of the process, whilst keeping a focus on the target savings required,” Mr Sleep said.
The new proposals required the submission of a new planning application for the route in October 2010. The actual construction budget for the scheme was £84m but this was eventually brought down to £69m.
“We’re delighted with the results which represent an excellent example of working together to find client-specific solutions,” said Rhys Griffith, project manager for Port Talbot PDR scheme. “The value engineering delivered project savings which made the scheme affordable and ensured that transport grant funding was provided by the Welsh Assembly.”
The savings also delivered improved economical cost benefit assessment results for the scheme, which helped inform the award of a European Convergence grant of £59m for the scheme. This is believed to be the largest European grant to Wales for a highways scheme.
The Port Talbot PDR will provide direct access to the M4 Motorway and dock area. The three-mile link road will also remove local traffic from the M4 and reduce congestion in a restricted corridor.
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