Case $7\mathrm{.}1$ Bridgecon Contractors

Bridgecon Construction Company specializes in

the detailed design and construction of steel and

concrete bridges. The first phase of the company's

project management methodology, Initiation,

includes identification of project opportunities and

assessment of each project's risks and alignment

with strategic goals. Bridgecon's marketing depart$-$

ment identified an opportunity: a well$-$known

bridge architect recently completed the concept

design for a cable$-$stayed bridge intended to cross

over electrified railway lines. Senior managers felt

the company could handle the project and decided

to pursue it; this marked the end of the first phase.

The project next enters the second phase, Esti$-$

mating, which includes site visits by the estimat$-$

ing team, review of available resources and skills,

detailed risk assessment, and preparing a prelimi$-$

nary plan for detailed design, procurement, logistics$,$

and construction. The phase includes activities A and

B in Table $7\mathrm{.}6,$ which are necessary to prepare the bid

for building the bridge. The phase concludes with a

presentation to the customer, the rail authority.

The project manager and the estimating team

meet with the architect and structural engineers

who produced the concept design to acquaint

themselves with the design. They then meet with

subcontractors who they might choose to con$-$

struct the pilings and fabricate steel components.

Following these meetings the "Initial Duration

Estimate" and "Initial Cost Estimate" are com$-$

pleted, shown in Table $7\mathrm{.}6.$

The RFP $($request for proposal$)$ for building

the bridge says acceptance of the plan by the rail

authority is one criterion for selecting a contractor.

Early on it becomes evident that starting with activ$-$

ity $D$ and until the completion of activity $S,$ opera$-$

tion of one of the railway lines under the bridge

will be impaired, although an informal discussion

with the rail authority indicates that this might be

acceptable. During a subsequent meeting, however,

the rail authority expresses concern that the impair$-$

ment will last $17$ weeks, and requests Bridgecon to

find ways to reduce that time. The estimating team

suggests the following possibilities:

The duration of activity $N$ could be reduced

from $1$ week to half a week by using additional

trucks. The additional cost would be $$33,000.$

An alternative subcontractor for piling is

approached. This subcontractor says it will be

able to halve the time of Activity $H$ for a total

cost of $$960,000.$

Two ways are identified to shorten the dura$-$

tion of activity D$.$ First, additional temporary

workers could be employed. This would

reduce the duration to $3$ weeks, and increaseTable $7\mathrm{.}6$ Activities for Constructing the Cable$-$Stayed Bridge

the cost to $$147,000.$ Second, a team of work$-$

ers highly skilled in this procedure $($and their

equipment$)$ could be temporarily reallocated

from another project. Adding this team and

temporary workers to the original team could

lead to completing the work in $1$ week. The

manager of the other project estimates that

the reallocation would cause him to forfeit

an incentive fee of $$150,000$ for finishing his

project early. The managers of the two projects

agree that, should the reallocation be made,

the value of incentive fee would be booked as

a cost against the cable$-$stayed bridge project

and transferred as a bonus to the other project.

The duration of activity $F$ can be reduced to $3$

weeks, but would increase the activity's cost to

$$730,000.$ It could be reduced to $2$ weeks, but

would cost $$820,000.$

The duration of activity $Q$ can be reduced to $2$

weeks, but the activity would cost $$2,929,000.$