We ‘value-engineer’ our projects
Enjoy some stories from our CEO William Sah about what can happen once Davilor Construction comes onto a job.
We don’t shy away from challenging a design or brief to see where we can improve, add value or save time and money for a client.
Road construction in the Midlands
“Recently we were invited to tender for a road construction project in the Midlands. The scheme had various main road sections, ditches and drainage sections including a carrier drain for filtered rain.
As part of our early intervention and brainstorming session, we challenged the design. Our proposition was to build a V ditch line with grass seeded mat to replace the concrete ditch proposed by the client.
It was cheaper, required less manpower, fewer concrete wagons on the road and reduced the CO2 footprint. It would also look good and so be better environmentally on several levels, leaving a great legacy.
Our idea was adopted by the client and this had a massive impact on the programme saving time and around £50,000 in costs.”
Containment Catchment solution for plants and motored equipment on site
“During a site visit for our clients HS2, one of the contractors was following client guidance that all plants and motored equipment should be fitted with a plant tray when parked.
A tray is installed to catch and contain any leaks or spills from construction vehicles on sites. The problem here is that when it rains the tray gets filled with water and everything overflows onto the ground defeating the object.
During the debrief with the subcontractor I suggested they should be using a ‘hydro pad’ instead. A hydro pad absorbs and contains any oil leaks and changes colour when saturated.
I’m pleased to say my suggestion was adopted by the subcontractor and was taken up as best practice throughout the company.
High pressure gas main diversion
“TX05 was a high pressure (75 bar) gas main diversion scheme in the Midlands to enable the construction of an HS2 mainline.
The scheme involved removing the existing high pressure gas main and the installation of the new gas main at a depth of 16 metres over 120 metres length.
To achieve that required depth the main contractor had opted for the technique of an open cut of an area 120m x 30m with a batter of 60 degrees.
A lot of ground had to be shifted, stored close by to be used for backfill, the pipe installed at 16m and a concrete slab installed for pipe protection at 600mm above the pipe.
During our brainstorming session we tried to look at ways of ‘value-engineering’ the project to save the client some time and money.
We came up with the idea that we should just dig up to 14m over the 120m length. We proposed digging a 2m trench for the pipe and the concrete protection slab, still meeting the overall required depth of 16m.
It had the potential saving of 7200m3 of material and reduced the CPR testing of the compaction.
Overall it had a massive impact on the programme, cutting the schedule by a week.
We were pleased the client accepted our proposition and saw a great return from our ‘value-engineering’ – estimated at over £75,000 in cost savings.