Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Since a new zoning plan procedure had to be undertaken in the Municipality
of Borssele, the project came under pressure. The options were:
- continue in full and run the risk that the project would be cancelled at a
later stage due to the dissolution yet again of the zoning plan, which was
being drawn up in Borssele. The costs involved in this risk were about
165 million euro;
- continue conditionally, whereby the contract would be dissolved. The
project could be restarted later, when the zoning plan of Borssele had
been finalized. The costs of this option: 10 million euro.
The client was of the opinion - incidentally also on the basis of a risk analy-
sis carried out - that the likelihood was very small that the zoning plan
which was being drawn up again would be dissolved, and was in favour of
continuing the project in full. The chance of having to pay 10 million euro
in 'continuing conditionally', was 100%, whereas in contrast there was only
a small chance that, in the case of 'continuing in full' 165 million euro
would have to be paid. The minister for Transport, Public Works and Water
Management decided to allow the project to go ahead in full.
On 19th March 1999, the Council of State declared that all the objections to
the 'Westerschelde Oeververbinding' zoning plan of Borssele were unfounded.
The zoning plan was therefore irrevocable.
Management of the surroundings and stakeholder-management
It is self evident that infrastructure projects have an enormous impact on
the surroundings, an impact that is not always experienced as being equally
desirable: owners of land, people living in the neighbourhood and adminis-
trative bodies often have other interests than those of the initiator and this
possible conflict of interests carries risks.
In order to be able to adequately anticipate, respond to and prevent the proj-
ect running into delays with all the financial consequences of this, manage-
ment of the surroundings is of crucial importance. This involves constantly
listing the bottlenecks and being in contact with the surroundings, for exam-
ple an association of owners, looking for solutions together.
As soon as the 'classical' method of land acquisition threatened to get
stuck, one of these solutions was found in the client issuing an offer of a
'co-operation premium': if land owners abandoned legal procedures, they
received an amount for their land that was 20% higher than the value of the
land; a measure which turned out to be extremely effective.
It is important that the client itself takes responsibility for the management of
the surroundings and it is not passed onto the contractor. Not only does this
not form part of its core business, the contractor in addition is not a perma-
nently involved party and will therefore show less interest in the surroundings.
In other words, striving for a long-term relationship does not have priority
for the contractor. The client is also always the first to be held accountable,
even if issues are concerned such as implementation permits which, con-
tractually speaking, certainly come under the responsibility of the contractor.
In other words, this is not easily compatible with the principles of a design
and build contract.
Communication
Communication plays a large role in the management of the surroundings.
A project such as the Westerschelde Tunnel can only be realized if public
support for this is sufficiently great and there is political will for it. Long
before the first spade went into the ground, communication concerning the
Westerschelde Tunnel project was therefore primarily aimed at propagating
'goodwill' for the project and was characterized by an active and very open
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