Project Management

Group Assignment

By

P. G. T. Silva (19426)

M.D.S. Peiris (19419)

K.P.L. Silva (19832)

A.H.M.A.N. Kularathne (19830)

H.N.M. Premaratne

G.M.P. Basuru (19450)

Hambanthota International Air Port External

Access Road Project by Access Engineering PLC
in 2011-2012

A project report submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements of the subject

Technology Management conducted by the

Department of Decision Sciences Faculty of Management Studies & Commerce

University of Sri Jayewardenepura

2022

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 Table of Contents

List of figures..............................................................................................................................i
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Organization...........................................................................................................................1
Project....................................................................................................................................1
Project performance and issues faced during the execution......................................................2
Scheduling variances..............................................................................................................2
Scope changing......................................................................................................................2
Outsourcing main operations.................................................................................................2
Weather conditions.................................................................................................................3
Financial Plan.............................................................................................................................4
How is the project delivered within the budget outlined in the financial plan?.....................4
Risk management.......................................................................................................................5
Risk Management process application...................................................................................5
Project communication...............................................................................................................7
Project success indicators...........................................................................................................8
Project outcomes........................................................................................................................9
Environment...........................................................................................................................9
Society....................................................................................................................................9
Recommendations and Solutions.............................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................13

List of figures
Figure 1: Logo of Access Engineering PLC..............................................................................1
Figure 2: Sketch of the road project...........................................................................................1
Figure 3: Deviation of key performance indicators...................................................................1
Figure 4: Risk categorization.....................................................................................................1
Figure 5: Risk register................................................................................................................2
Figure 6: One of risk mitigation plan.........................................................................................2
Figure 7: Project communication process..................................................................................3
Figure 8: Project success indicators...........................................................................................4

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 Introduction

Organization

Figure 1: Logo of Access Engineering PLC

Access Engineering PLC is one of the leading organizations in the civil engineering and
construction industry in Sri Lanka. Mr. Sumal Perera is the founder and chairman of this
company. Access Engineering product portfolio includes market offering like engineering
design, Geotechnical services, piling services, HDD and Cable Jetting service, Dredging and
Dredging related activities, Supply of Asphalt concrete, Quarry operations and Crusher
plants, Ready mix Concrete Supply
Their VISION is,
“To be the foremost Sri Lankan business enterprise in value engineering”
As far as the history of the organization is concerned, the foundation here takes place in 2001.
Access Engineering was incorporated as a public limited company in 2001 and accredited by
the National Construction Association of Sri Lanka (NCASL). Access Engineering PLC
obtained ISO 9001- 2004 certification for quality management system in 2004, Quality
Assurance Construction Training and Development Institute has awarded M1 grade, the
highest classification, for specialized fields. (Nowadays M1 Grade has been replaced with C1
Grade) In this way, Access Engineering PLC has evolved into a world-class engineering
organization since its inception.
Their recent projects,
 Rehabilitation & Improvements to Colombo – Kandy Road section from Kadawatha
to Nittambuwa
 Construction of Canal Bank Protection Works of St.Sebastian South Canal
 Rehabilitation of Labugama & Kalatuwawa Water Treatment Plants

Project
Regarding the project, we selected a project done by Access Engineering PLC in the year
2011, to prepare the report. Accordingly, the name of the project is HAIP External Access
Road Project. The objective of the project is Construction of Hambanthota International Air
Port External Access Road Project, and the project value is Rs 220,321,229.33. The
Government of People’s Republican of China, Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and Airport
and Activation Services Sri Lanka (AASL) has provided funding for this project and AASL is

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the client OF THE PROJECT. The construction started on 25 th January 2011 and the project
completion date

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is 29th February 2012. Further studying the project, its performance, risk management, communication, success indicators as well as the key
learnings and finally the outcomes of the project for the environment and society have also been discussed in the report.

Figure 2: Sketch of the road project

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 Project performance and issues faced during the execution
Basically, the road project performance was affect in many ways such as delays in approvals
from statutory organizations, change of the project scope, non-availability of materials,
disadvantageous weather condition and natural disasters.

Scheduling variances
Project had two commencement dates one is for the design approval and other one is the
commencement of construction. Initially, the organization has submitted the design proposal
on 13th August 2010, and it was not approved at that time. After the approval, the
construction was started on 25th August 2011. At the beginning, the project was subcontracted
to one subcontractor who was working for CHEC (China Harbor Engineering Corporation) at
that time. Therefore, road pavement works were offered to him. But he failed to achieve
required level of construction during the given time. Top management have decided to
execute the construction with direct labor and machinery resulting of failure of continuous
commitment of the sub-contractor. Not only these factors but also there were lots of reasons
to the project schedule deviation compared the planned schedule. Below topics feed this
statement.

Scope changing
Changing the scope and changing the instructions were delayed the project. On 8 th August
2011, CHEC and AASL (Airport and Aviation Service of Sri Lanka) had given instructions
to Access Engineering to suspend the works from Ch0+560 to 0+000 (i.e., the road length
starting from 0+560 to 0+000). Furthermore, CHEC had instructed to limit the
construction work from Ch 1+500 – 2+240 road section on 27 th August 2011. However, at
that time Access Engineering was arranged all asphalting teams as well. Hence, CHEC
advised to change the scope to Ch 0+840 to 2+220 road section on 24 th September 2011. As
these scope changes, the production process was more delayed because of time delays in
arranging materials, machineries, and other resources.

Outsourcing main operations.

Mainly, construction projects require laboratory testing as every main activity of the project
need to follow certain quality levels. This project was done laboratory test since every main
activities should comply with quality assurance procedures. If there was a failure of testing

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affected to progress of construction and after this failure immediate actions should be taken to
rectify. But Access had not to carry out a significant influence on such testing since this
testing was done by outside team.

At the beginning, they have started works with culvert constructions and concreting for which
an outside batching plant was used. Concrete was got from them later. There was created an
issue that they had to wait get concrete and schedule couldn’t be followed. Sometimes, they
couldn’t do concrete because of non-availability of cement and breakdown of batching plant.
Furthermore, when they did asphalting works, they have given to outside team for carrying
out the surfacing works. Also, they purchased asphalt from outside asphalt plant because
there is no own asphalt plant. Moreover, the most crucial situation the organization had to
face is to arrange the most suitable, reliable, and best sub-contractor to the asphalting. In
addition to that, project consultant of this project also was very strict to specification and
instructions have been given time to time. Therefore, more time had to be spent for asphalting
work. This additional time consumption delayed the work by 2 months. But Access
Engineering could not carry out night works to catch up the delay due to wild animal hazard
problems. They could not arrange dump truck monthly rental basis for the asphalting
considering with the scope of the work. Then, they have to arrange dump truck on daily basis,
and it was very difficult, and they had to negotiate with truck owners.

Weather conditions
Weather condition was another main problem that they faced during the project execution.
Due to heavy rain in later quarter of year, whole activities can’t execute. Therefore, earth
works had to be started before this period. But they could not complete entire earth works
before the bad weather condition According to heavy rain, lots of unnecessary expenses was
incurred for reworks. Due to these matters, project had to be extended.

Considering all above facts, we can identify one of crucial problem is they sourced many
resources like machinery, material, plants and employees from outside parties such as
asphalting plant, batching plant. Because of that, Access Engineering Ltd has not a significant
controlling power over the project. Hence, whole project depends on other parties and
probably, company could not achieve scheduled things as wished. Also, quality of project
was dependent on others. In addition to that problem, we can emphasize further reasons are
unable to complete within scheduled time and required quality level such as delays in

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approval from statutory organization, change of scope, non-availability of material (e.g.
Bitumen) weather and other natural disasters.

Financial Plan

How is the project delivered within the budget outlined in the financial
plan?

Key Performance As per As per Reason

Indicators (KPI) financial final
plan report
% of profit on total 14% 12.5% Due to scope reduction target profit
project percentage reduce but project
management able to increase profit
value by creating extra works up to this
value.
% of overhead on 7% 10.61% At the time to time more staff were
total project cost recruited to the project because client
and company highly concern about the
project quality so overheads increased.
But it can be achieved further more
good result by finding a new project to
same project team and assigning staff in
sequence manner to new project at the
ending duration of previous one.
% of cost of labor 3% 3.31% Marginally achieved the target.
on total project
% of cost of cost 57% 46.37% Project able to create reasonable
material on total material saving mainly from ABC,
project cost priming, tack coating and concreting
activities.
% of cost of 19% 17.75% Achieved.
machinery &
equipment on total
project cost
% Rework cost on 0.5% 0.37% Achieved. At beginning rework cost
total project cost increase with subcontractors’ work. But
sequence manner their experienced
technical site staff minimizes it
properly.
% of Non 0.5% 0% Achieved. Project management able to

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productive cost / hire all machineries requirement
idle cost on total without charging any idling cost
project cost payments.

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 Graph: deviation of key performance indicators

Figure 3: Deviation of key performance indicators

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 Risk management

Risk refers to a probability measure of not accomplishing predetermined project goals and its
consequences (Kerzner, 2017). Joseph Heagney (2015) takes the view that project risk
management is a process of planning the risk management, risk identification, analysis,
planning response, and monitoring and controlling the risk of a project. Risk management is
a key concern in the project planning process (Wysocki, 2019).

Risk Management process application

When it comes to the Access Engineering PLC, they had identified risk management as
important and had executed a risk management in this road project. According to the
information gathered, Access Engineering had conducted meetings in risk identification as
the first of risk management for the road project. Not only meetings but also, they had
referred previous project learnings as well. As the next step, which is categorization of risk,
they had used three bases namely, operational risks, technical risks, and natural risks. Below
table shows few risks identified under each category.

Figure 4: Risk categorization

Access Engineering had assessed the risk in a qualitative manner. The project risk register
shows that they had scaled their risk probabilities and impacts from low, medium, and finally
to high which is a very narrow scale. If there is a low probability, that task had scored by 1, if
medium, scored as 3 and 5 score for high probability. Access Engineering had formed a risk
mitigation plan as the risk response strategy. Figure shows an example of risk mitigating for
an identified risk. As the final step, Access Engineering had conducted weekly regular

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project reviews and regular team status meetings, and monthly milestone reviews. On those
meetings, they had monitored their risks.

Figure 5: Risk register

Figure 6: One of risk mitigation plan

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 Project communication
Project Communication management is a collection of processes that help make sure the right
messages are sent, received, and understood by the right people. In the current organizational
context, there are main three primary project communication management processes. (Wrike,
n.d.)

Figure 7: Project communication process

project communication part should be very effective and efficient way in any project. If there
are not good communication between different parties of project, there would be unsuccessful
outputs. According to this government project (HAIP External Access Road Project) that we
have identified some issues rather than the positive factors on project communication part.

 First, we come to the approval stage of project plan, we have identified there had
some big-time delays on that stage, the reason is their early-stage design was
submitted on 13th August 2010. But project approval construction has been started on
25th January 2011. So, on these details we can assume government have not used
proper communication methods on project approval stage.
 We assume Project planners and other parties of project had not self-milestones and
targets. Because of that, there hadn’t said any target achievements in the report.
 There had not good communication between standards makers (Top management) and
project implementors (Operation level workers). Therefore, there were some
unbalances between standards and output.
 And they had changed their scope and standards in three times, so that we assume
there were huge communication issues.
 Top management of the project who had to get several times of meetings, that they
have committed to catch up the delays and failures on the early subcontractor.
 Rather than other main issue we have identified there were some of communication
delays and problems with subcontractors.

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 Project success indicators

Project success is a difficult concept because of projects are complex and dynamic. Until
now, there has been no universal definition of project success accepted by all interest parties
(Nguyen, 2013). The definition of project success may vary depending on the industry,
project team, or individual point of view (Sanvido, 1993).

On behalf of this project, we could identify some of project success indicators which they
have used to estimate the level of success of the project by using satisfaction responses by

Satisfaction level

Figure 8: Project success indicators

their team’s, customers’, and other parties’ responses.

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 Project outcomes

Environment
A project may generate favorable and/or unfavorable outcomes to both internal and external
parties related to a project.

 Mosquito breeding – due to the water collections in borrow pit area.

o Solutions – maintained a slope for the borrow pits, culvert lead away
preparation, road slope drain preparation and grass sod activities were carried
out to protect the land and water
 Tree planting
o 250 tress (Kohomba, Ehela, and Kumbuk)
 Used proper waste disposal areas so that the land and water pollution is minimized
 Tried to align with ISO 14001 standard.

Society
While doing the project, there were many problems occurred from outside society and
employees. Some of them can be mentioned as follows.

The project manager had to find a new place to borrow soil from the Matara area because of
he was instructed to stop the excavation of borrow pit inside the Hambantota International
Air Port. However, the villagers had expressed their reluctance to transport soil from the
pavement on 4/6/2011. After project manager discussed with the villagers, the problems were
resolved by agreeing not to use dump trucks and they covered by the tents.

Also, due to the inability to arrange the dump truck monthly rental basis, it was very difficult
to negotiate with the truck owner’s day by day in a day rental basis.

Especially using human resources more efficiently and effectively to perform quality work as
well as motivating them. From the beginning to the end of the project, food and
accommodation facilities were provided for the employees without any charge. Also, they
arranged annual trip to Kithulgala.

An important social contribution from our project is the contribution of furniture

requirements for Katagalara Vidyalaya at Embilipitiya.

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 Recommendations and Solutions

When we studied this HAIP External Access Road project, we identified several issues and
shortcomings in different areas.

 Outsourcing too many activities.

As they did not have their own Asphalt plant, batching plant, and laboratory facilities, they
had to outsource those kinds of activities. It leads to limit the control power of the firm
because they cannot involve to the activities directly.

To overcome this issue, they could possess their own plants and other required facilities in
order to limit outsourcing their main activities. Nevertheless, in practical, this may require a
huge capital investment. Hence, Access can use concepts like keiretsu network which allow s
supply chain parties to be collaborate with Access. Further, Access can use concurrent
engineering approach in decision making in order to eliminate fragmented decisions.
Addition to that, Access can follow a proper negotiation with their value chain partners as
well. Through that risks related to outsourcing can be reduced.

 Not selecting sub-contractors in a proper way.

Access company select sub-contractors without any evaluation. Then, sub-contractors’
problems are highlight during the project execution. Then Access should move to another one
during the project.

This issue can be removed by introducing an evaluation method to select sub-contractors

including their past performances.

 Natural constraints
As we mentioned above chapters, they faced floods and rains during the project. It caused to
significant delays of the activities like earth works. Also, night-time works are not carried due
to wild animal hazards.

Access company could plan their activities in order to finish the works before rains and
floods as they know bad weather periods. Increase daytime working hours is a solution for
the wild animal hazards.

 Taking too much time to approve the project is one of the main communication errors.

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Project design was submitted on 13th August 2010, but it was approved on 25 th January 2011.
There was considerable delay between the dates. This can be happened due to week
communication systems.

They can overcome this failure by managing proper communication network using new
technology instead of traditional methods like mere review meetings.

 The gap between standards makers and project managers.

We can identify that they have changed their standards several times during the project. To
minimize this gap, they could build up strong connection between two parties. Because
standards must be able to implement. Using frequent collaboration between those parties will
be a solution.

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 References

Heagney, J. (2015). In Fundamentals of Project Management 5th edition.

Kerzner, H. (2017). In Project Management 12th Edition; A systems approach to planning,

scheduling, and controlling (p. 601).

Nguyen, V. C. (2013). LIST OF INDICATORS AND CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING.

Sanvido, P. a. (1993). Checklist of critical success factors for building projects.

Wrike. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wrike.com/project-management-guide/faq/what-is-

project-communication-management/

Wysocki, K. R. (2019). In Effective Project Management (p. 123). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,.

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