Project Management Assignment help Online Analysis Review: Melbourne’s West gate bridge and its collapse

Question??

Write an essay on West Gate Bridge Melbourne’s project??

1. An Analysis of the Project’s Structure and Management

The success of any project is highly dependent on its structure and management. Structure of the project defines the role of different parties involved in the project and their interrelationship. With the help of the project structure, different standards can be defined which the teams will use during the project. These include communication standards, documentation standards and other procedural standards. Program management plays main role in the formulation of the project structure. In the absence of the project structure, state of dilemma can occur during the project which can lead to the miscommunication or differences among the parties (Harrison and Lock 2004).

The Authority for the West Gate Bridge, the Lower Yarra Crossing Authority assembled various firms and companies for the project. All these firms and companies were highly experienced and successful in their fields. At the beginning of the project it was suggested that senior personnel of each party will communicate with the other parties, so that the state of confusion can be avoided and problems at initial can be identified and eradicated. But during the analysis of reasons of the failure of the project it was found that confusion, lack of co-operation, and antagonism that developed among the parties was the major reason behind this failure.

Some of the major structural problems which are identified during this analysis are:

(a)   Lack of integration among the parties

In a project, the role and responsibilities of each party are different, but they all need some kind of information or support from the other parties in order to fulfill their duties in correct manner. But in the West Gate Bridge project, there was lack of integration and communication among the parties. The WSC, one of the parties involved in the project was removed from the project because of its inability to meet its deadlines. But in the investigation it was come to know that the major reason behind the delay in the work of WSC was lack of support from the other party FF&P. It was expected that FF&P will provide some fundamental information, but it did not responded to the queries of WSC in timely manner which resulted in the development of friction among the two organizations. This lack of communication and co-operations among the parties shows that the project structure was weak and ineffective (Allhoff and Vaidya 2008).

(b)   Selection of less experienced parties

After the removal of WSC from the contract, JHC was appointed for the removal for steel span. This decision also shows the weakness of West Gate Bridge project structure and management. JHC was most inexperienced party among the all other option available to the authority.  The removal of HSC and appointment of JHC resulted into different kind of technical and legal issues. Due to lack of experience and resources, other parties were expected to provide some greater assistance to JHC. Some contractual issues were also there. These all conditions weaken the structure of the project further.

(c)    Imbalance in division of role and responsibilities among the parties

After the appointment of JHC, the other party FF&P was assigned with some extra duties and responsibilities. These differences among the roles and responsibilities of the parties, created confusion among the FF&P staff and engineers of JHC, resulted into failure of the project (Dr. Charrett 2008).

(d)   Non-clarity in the contract clauses

It is very important for the authority of the project to define a clear contract, so that each and every party can understand their liabilities and other issues. But the clauses used in the contract during the West Gate Bridge were not very clear, which created confusion among the parties to understand their role and responsibilities and other consequences.

(e)    Relationship of Authority with the other parties

It is the duty of the authority to make sure that each party to fulfill their duties in correctly and timely manner. It is also important for the authority to take measures so that differences among the parties can be resolved. But every party involved in the West Gate Bridge was having dispute with the authority at some stage or other. This only shows that the authority adopted wrong approach and was failed to avoid the disputes and maintain the structure of the project (Rixon 1971).

On the basis of the above information and analysis, it can be said that structure and managerial weaknesses were one of the major reasons behind the failure of the West Gate Bridge project failure.

2. A Proposal for the Structure and Management of the Project

The failure of West Gate Bridge project showed that proper structuring of project very crucial for the successful completion of the project. Timely and accurate communication among the parties can be achieved through the proper project structuring, which results into the better integration of the parties thus helps in avoiding the situation of confusion and grievances. On the basis of the above discussion a proposal for the structure and management of the project can be framed. Some of the crucial points that need to be considered while formulating the structure of the project are:

1. Contract should be clear and appropriate: The Authority of West Gate Bridge should have considered this point while formulating the contract for the parties. The contract designed by the authority was vague and terms mentioned in it was not possible for the engineers and the contractors to achieve. It is important for such kind of project to have a contract which clearly defines the responsibilities of the engineer and the contractor in a way that is contractually achievable (Dr. Charrett 2008).
2. Grievances handling procedure should be adopted: In any large-scale project, different parties work together on a contract based. Due to the difference in working and management style, parties carries different attitude which can result into the development of grievances among them. Such grievances can have negative impact on the progress of the project. So it is the duty of the authority to have a grievances handling procedure in the system, so parties can come up with their problems to be resolved. If the authority of West Gate Bridge adopted such kind of grievance handling procedure, there were chances that differences between WSC and FF&P could have been resolved and project would not have been failed.
3. Proper Labor management: It has been observed due to the improper labor management during the project of West Gate Bridge, some of the parties were imposed with some heavier responsibilities in comparison to the other parties. This extra burden of duties not only affected the performance of the one party but it also lead to the state of confusion and distrust. If there was proper labor management contract was adopted during the project this could have been avoided and all parties can perform well according to their standards (Taugan 2002).
4. Avoid inappropriate time pressure: Sometime in such kind of projects, management gives more importance on completing the work on time, which provide them less time to take right kind of decisions that leads to the error of judgments (Lewis 2000). This thing also happened during the West Gate Bridge project. Authority of the project cancelled the contract of WSC because of its incapability of meeting the deadlines without knowing the real reason behind the problem. The removal of WSC not improved the progress of project but it created more problems. Thus it is important that enough time should be spent on the problems before taking any decision or changing the project’s structure.
5. Authority should take the responsibility: It is the duty of the authority to make sure that not only its relationship with parties remains healthy, but also the parties also have good relationship with each other. Apart from this, it must actively participate in the designing and decision making process of the parties and provide some suggestions if required (Rixon 1971).

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