PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN


cascade down the supply chain. She said HS2 is keen to ensure that the tier 1 contractors cannot just take the incentives and squeeze their own suppliers further down the supply chain.


The second enabler is collaboration, with strong client leadership – “We won’t be changing our mind constantly,” West pledged.


Third is innovation. Although HS2 often makes the point that it is based on proven, tested technology, the fact is that technology moves on, and it now expects to make use of things like BIM (building information modelling), offsite manufacturing, and pre-fabrication. Some assets may seem like they last virtually forever,


but things like communications technology and IT are changing very quickly.


The final three key enablers are risk ownership, integration and


and transparency. West said


HS2 understood the client


behaviours that frustrate suppliers and add no value, such as sudden redesigns, unexpected reworking and ‘man-marking’, and promised to avoid these.


She said: “To deliver this nationally important project on time and below budget, we need to work closely with suppliers early on, to ensure that sufficient planning is in place before the start of the formal procurement process. This will also benefit business, by giving them a head start to make the investments they require in recruitment, training and education to support the innovative ways of working we need to deliver HS2.”


Project timeline


There has been talk in recent months of accelerating HS2’s timeline, kickstarted by incoming chairman Sir David Higgins, currently Network Rail’s chief executive, who said he can’t see why it can’t be completed more quickly.


Stephen Dance, director of infrastructure delivery at Infrastructure UK, the part of HM Treasury charged with supporting planning, prioritisation, enabling and effective delivery of infrastructure across sectors in the UK, spoke in a panel debate at the conference on


co-location,


In an interview with RTM at the conference, HS2 technical director Professor Andrew McNaughton also addressed this question. He called it a “huge and amazing thing” that HS2 has secured a funding stream from the government over a long period, and noted that it’s impossible to predict future governments’ spending powers or decisions.


“But what we can do,” he said, “is demonstrate that the supply sector can, through innovation and faster delivery, show that it has developed the skills and has got the skilled people we need – builders,


designers, constructors,


demolition workers, software people – and that innovation is also taking cost out. That makes it very easy for a government to decide ‘we can afford to do this quicker’. Because it’s manifestly clear to the supply industry, if the government chooses, that this programme can go quicker.”


‘British businesses have the expertise to deliver HS2’


Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin sat down with RTM at the conference just before his keynote speech, and discussed the role of the UK rail supply chain in delivering the project, the vital need for extra capacity, and the next steps in the parliamentary process.


Beth West unveiled HS2’s work packages and contract types at the conference.


He told us: “What’s encouraging about today – and I’m really pleased that [outgoing HS2 chairman] Doug Oakervee and others have organised it – is to give notice to business that this is going to be one of the largest infrastructure projects we’ve done in the UK for some considerable time. Particularly when you take the overall impact [into account], it’s fair to say that phase one of HS2 is just a little bit more expensive than Crossrail – the target price I’ve given for phase one is £17.6bn.


‘How HS2 and the industry will work together to deliver the programme’.


He suggested that with the right actions from the rail industry, HS2 could indeed be delivered more quickly, explaining that the timetable is likely to be governed ultimately less by ministerial decisions and funding, and more by the capacity of the industry itself to rise to the construction challenge.


He said: “If we can get procurement right, and industry responding well, and people working together so we can demonstrate that we can deliver the railway people want and need and deserve…I think we will be able to do that [build HS2 more quickly].”


Dance also said that as a country,


“once we start big projects, we tend to see them through”.


Collaboration


HS2 Ltd has this to say on collaboration: “Recent successfully delivered major programmes and projects in the UK have all had high degrees of collaborative working. Nothing has been delivered on the scale of HS2, so we need to continue to change behaviours in the supply chain so that collaboration is not just delivered on individual projects – this should be a fundamental industry step change. Throughout the duration of the programme, HS2 will be under scrutiny over costs, which means we need to avoid non-productive work. We believe that early contractor involvement is critical to successful whole-life delivery. We are looking to open up opportunities for collaboration between HS2 Ltd and our counterparties and between our contractors and their supply chain.


“Through initial conversations with industry, HS2 Ltd has identified some key principles to help HS2 achieve collaboration across its contracts over a long period of time in order to deliver the best and most cost effective outcomes.”


“It’s fantastic that we’ve got 800 businesses here, British businesses, wanting to be involved and wanting to see what opportunities there are for their companies. So those people who say ‘we haven’t got the expertise’, come here and look at this.”


Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin’s keynote speech.


The government is perceived by the national press to have shifted its core argument on HS2 from journey times to railway capacity. But McLoughlin rejected that point, saying that capacity had always been an important part of the case for the project. He told RTM: “I don’t think you’re going to do a major project like this and not have controversy. In fairness to Lord Adonis, when he launched HS2, he talked about capacity as well – but the media got more fixated on the speed than the whole story.


“I came up this morning from London, and the train was delayed because of a tragic incident at Stafford but also because of a freight train


Continued overleaf > rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 14 | 51


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