[The following has appeared in the Australian National Construction Review, Oct 2011. Photos courtesy of ANCR. ]

A complex project can really benefit from an independent coach and umpire.  Tracey Brunstrom Hammond (TBH) have decades of experience in providing project management services, and brought their skills to the 1 Bligh Street project to smooth the programming path for Grocon and their multitude of subcontractors.

TBH was involved on the 1 Bligh St project primarily to provide construction programming and planning services, and independent progress monitoring and reporting services. Their involvement commenced from the pre-tender stage and continued through almost to completion and handover.

“At the pre-tender stages we were involved in producing construction methodologies, site staging and  establishment variations, indicative costing and cashflows, and eventually of the tender programmes that assisted Grocon in winning the job to begin with,” explained TBH Senior Consultant Scott Bertoni.

“Once Grocon had commenced on the job we assisted them in producing both contract programmes and target programmes for the project. These were fully resourced programmes that allowed us to both forecast potential man-power estimates and track against actual on-site performance of individual trades.

“As the project progressed we maintained a monitoring role, reporting back to Grocon with upcoming issues that had the potential to cause delays to the project in a timely matter, allowing Grocon to manage these issues before they became critical.

“The most important features of our work were both the collaborative relationship we had with Grocon in the construction planning phases of the project, and the value that our programming services added to the project. The fact that we are an independent consultancy is of great value, as we are able to better inform our clients without the bias or agenda that may sometimes occur if these roles are performed in-house.”

The most challenging part of the programming task was the staging and construction logistics of the unique double-skinned facade and full length atrium.  TBH needed to factor in how individual complex elements affected each other, and the program as a whole.

TBH has been in business in Australia since 1965, founded with the skills and experience of Richard Tracey and Gerald Brunstrom, who had been providing services to the US Defence and Aerospace industries from their office in Seattle since 1955.  The first TBH project in Australia was managed from an office in Perth, and was for the US Navy, who constructed the Harold Holt Communications Station on the Western Australia coast.  In 1966 a Sydney office was opened, facilitating projects including upgrades of the Sydney and Melbourne airports, hospitals and high rise constructions.

TBH expanded into Brisbane in 1980 and Canberra in 1990, and also has offices in Melbourne and Perth.  For almost 30 years TBH was providing their skills to projects in Asia and the Middle East from the Australian Offices, and in 2008 TBH joined forces with Confluence to form Confluence TBH, a  Singapore-based venture which provides specialist services throughout Asia, Oceania, the Middle East and Europe, with offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi.

This is a company that takes the quality of their service seriously, with accreditation by Lloyds Register Quality Assurance.  TBH are an AIPM member, and were 2009 State Winner for Project Management Achievement Award for Deer Park Bypass, Melbourne.

TBH’s ability to manage complexity, finesse details and provide Expert Witness services has proved invaluable for projects including railways, civil infrastructure, all types of construction, ICT, natural resources, hospitality, airports, Defence, health and education.