Forging long term collaboration in water infrastructure delivery

Aotearoa New Zealand needs to rethink the way it procures and delivers drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. Most infrastructure delivery programmes in the water sector involve short term transactional contracts. But for the sake of greater efficiencies, long term collaborative contracts are a better approach. WSP Client Director for Water Philip McFarlane explains.

New Zealand | Wednesday, 7 September 2022

The Government’s Three Waters Reform programme has identified that investment of between $120bn and $185bn is needed over the next 30 years to make sure the country’s drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure meets public health and environmental standards. However, to deliver these works, productivity in the water sector needs to be significantly boosted.

The trouble with the transactional approach

The transactional approach to procurement used in the water sector is one reason for low productivity.

Typically, the consultants who design projects (and the contractors who build works) are chosen for individual projects through separate competitive tender processes. This creates uncertainty. As a result, the water sector has been slow to make investments in areas that could increase productivity – things like the latest digital technologies, offsite construction, and advanced manufacturing methods for construction.

Short term, transactional engagements also mean employers are hesitant to employ and train staff. That's a less than ideal situation in an environment already characterised by skill shortages

The Institute of Civil Engineers have gone so far as to say “that the transactional model for delivering major infrastructure projects and programmes is broken. It prevents efficient delivery, prohibits innovation and fails to provide the high-performing infrastructure networks that businesses and the public require.”

Collaborate and reap the benefits

Thankfully, there’s a solution. Productivity in the water sector can be improved when owners, design consultants and contractors and other parts of the supply chain enter long term relationships.

The most successful of these arrangements leverage the collective skills and expertise of the parties and focus on programme outcomes ahead of project outputs. Successful programmes seek added value through coordination and collaboration. They also facilitate efficiency and effectiveness gains through standardisation, resource levelling, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Governance

Successful programmes are typically led by a joint governance board with senior executives from the client organisation, designers and contractors coming together to provide leadership and maintain focus on achieving the strategic intent of the programme.

Improvement

Working together to get better and deliver outcomes more efficiently and effectively is a learning journey. There’s no fast and hard rule for improving the way things are done, but a great place to start is embedding a culture of continuous improvement through sharing lessons learnt.

Measurement and reporting

It’s important in any water infrastructure programme to understand your strategic objectives and develop measures that reflect the performance of the partners. In the quest for ongoing excellence, performance is regularly reported and discussed between the partners - with areas of improvement identified.

Project planning

Servicing strategies and forward works programmes are developed and a portfolio of works defined to deliver the programme’s strategic intent. It’s important that contractor partners, operations staff and stakeholders are engaged for input early in the planning and design process.

Digital transformation

The most successful water infrastructure programmes see data and information captured and treated as digital assets. The partners work together to implement a common digital platform and develop digital tools so teams can work in an integrated, efficient way

Integration and teamwork

With partners from the client organisation, designers and contractors work together to deliver the right activities at the right time. There’s a strong focus on developing high performing teams, growing capability, and optimising the programme for continuity of design teams and efficient utilisation of construction plant and resources. A ‘one team’ approach is adopted that focuses on best-for-programme outcomes.