Extra Network Meeting: Perspectives on Early Contractor Involvement
Wednesday 17 March 2021
Extra virtual Network Meeting on March 17 @ 13:00hrs (CET)
Following the successes of our virtual Network Meetings, an extra NETLIPSE Network Meeting took place on Wednesday, March 17th. This third virtual NETLIPSE meeting centered on the topic of Early Contractor Involvement (ECI). Over 60 people participated in this meeting and shared their perspectives and experiences with ECI in various countries.
Programme
Early contractor involvement, or two-stage contracting, is a topic that recently gained traction in research and practice. Introducing the contractor in an early stage of the project is believed to bring innovation, efficiency and control to large complex projects. To test this hypothesis and to explore what we understand by and how we apply early contractor involvement in large scale infrastructure projects was the topic of this extra Network Meeting.
[You can find the programme here.]
Presentations
In the presentations we focused on the experiences with ECI in the United Kingdom and Sweden. Due to time constraints, we replaced the breakout rooms with a plenary discussions. The many questions and ideas shared here illustrated the great interest in the topic. As such, we’re keen to continue the discussion with you on this topic at our future events.
Lessons learnt in the United Kingdom
Following the opening by the Chairman of NETLIPSE Hans Ruijter, we first looked at ECI in the United Kingdom. David Hull from Highways England shared with us their lessons with two-stage contracting in infrastructure projects. Relying on an extensive database of highway construction projects, he explained how the use of two-stage contracting was optimized in the A14 project. The lessons of Highway England were instrumental in the introduction of two-stage contracting by Trafikverket in Sweden.
[You can find the presentation here.]
Implementing two-stage contracting in Sweden
The experiences with the introduction and implementation of two stage-contracting at Trafikverket was presented from the perspective of research and practice. PhD candidate Lilly Rosander and prof. Anna Kadefors, both from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, opened with the evolution at Trafikverket of collaborative approaches in the early 2000s to a formal ECI contracting strategy in recent years.
[You can find the presentation here.]
How and with what results ECI has been applied was presented by Per Rydberg from Trafikverket. Taking his experience with the Varberg railway tunnel as a case study, he shared with us the rationale behind the contracting strategy, the challenges encountered and the eventual successes.
[You can find the presentation here.]
The presentations was directly followed by the preliminary findings of Lilly Rosander’s doctoral research on the implementation of two-stage contracting at Trafikverket over the last years. Looking at 7 infrastructure projects, she identified the challenges and lessons in each project and the way these experiences have helped shape the procedures for two-stage contracting at Trafikverket.
[You can find the presentation here.]
Next Network Meeting
We hope to see you at our next Network Meeting on May 18, 2021. This will again take place in the form of an online meeting. The Network Meeting hosted by the Interregional Agency for the River Po region in Parma, Italy is postponed to spring 2022.
Please save the date and we'll be informing you shortly about the program.
Finally
If you have any questions regarding NETLIPSE, our publications or events, please feel free to contact us via info@netlipse.eu.
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