Airport Link Project (Coursework Sample)

Airport Link Project
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Executive summary
In November 2008, some major constructions started in Brisbane on a $4.8 billion infrastructure project that was collectively known as the Airport Link Project. This project was analyses to be the largest of its kind in the whole of Australia. This project mainly consisted of three 3 major programmers of work. The first part was the completion of a 6.7 km toll road that is mainly underground and it links the cit y to the northern suburbs and the airport (Brissconnection, 2009). The second program would the construction of the Northern Bus way which is a two-lane and two way road for buses only. The last step would involve the replacement of the already existing Gateway motorway pass at the roundabout with a new four-lane overpass. This particular project is already more than halfway complete and on schedule to be complete by mid 2012.
Airport link project
Introduction
The Airport link is a major tunnel that acts as a motor way grade road in the northern suburbs o f Brisbane, Queensland Australia. This particular road is still under construction. Once the project is over, this tunnel will connect the Brisbane Central Business District with the Clem Jones Tunnel to the east-West Arterial road that leads to Brisbane Airport. This tunnel is being built in conjunction with the Windsor to Kedron at the section of Nothern Bus way. The project takes up at least 15 km of tunneling which included the road, bus way tunnels and all the connecting ramps. Lane configuration will provide for separate traffic movements, with early decision points, to minimize traffic weaving and merging (Danny 2009) the rough estimates for the construction of the Airport Link were about $ 4.8 billion and it was scheduled for completion in the mid 2012.
BrisConnections has been awarded a 45 year concession to design, construct, operate, maintain and finance the Airport Link toll road in Brisbane. Airport Link is a 6.7 kilometer multi-lane electronic free-flow toll road with dual 5.7 kilometer tunnels motorway (Charles et al, 2009). Once completed, the Airport Link will operate as a multi-destination road connecting Brisbane’s northern suburbs with Brisbane’s Brisbane Central Business District and Brisbane Airport, the Clem Jones Tunnel and the Inner City Bypass
BrisConnenction was set up by Macquarie capital group and the construction firms Thiess and John Holland who were supposed to build, design and operate at least $4.9 billion which was set aside for airport toll road in Brisbane. The company was functioning under a 45 year lease concession awarded by the state of Queensland in May 2008.two months later the company floated at A$1 share, lost at 60% of its values in a day and by November they had hit one-tenth of the Australian cent. The airport link project has been conducted as one of the public-private partnership (PPP).
It was during the early period when the Brisconnection listed that most of its securities were owned by institutional investors like Macquarie group, just before the prices started to come down drastically. Most of these same institutions diverted their stock to other retail investors’. The Australian Securities And Investment Commission (ASIC), gave its contribution to the company by seeking to act on behalf of the investors by seeking independent financial report of BrisConnnection. The company also threatened to sue the investors so as to be able to raise the necessary capital .which would be used to continue with the project (Joshua 2011).
Stakeholder’s analysis
The project was implemented by various stakeholders who played different roles ranging from employees, client, consultants and subcontractors. Some of the stakeholders of this project included Macquarie, Boston and Deutche. This was to ensure that the project objectives were met and that they would be on schedule. They authority oversaw the construction of the road and coordinated the participating parties (Danny, 2009). They ensured that the project was undertaken according to plan and budget .The other two installments cost 1000 times higher than the previous trading value of stock.
When the infrastructure made its way to the international stock market investors, it was during the time when the government sold an operational powerful plant which was considered to be a tangible asset. Nicholas Bolton was a 27 year old guy who was very mysterious and war the chief construction partner in the project. He was known to cause one of the worst share market floats in Australian history. He was accused of cutting a deal worth $ 4.5 million for his voting rights in BrisConnections the developer of Brisbane's $4.8 billion Airport Link tunnel.
Implementation of the project
The teams involved in the project adopted procedures and systems which combined different approaches. This enabled them to deliver a comprehensive piece of work from the best angle they gathered. Project managers were open to diverse views of others. The functions of each member were clearly laid out hence there was no role conflict once the plan went underway. Everyone was therefore; positioned in the right place to accomplish the project.
Unity was a strategy that the stakeholders exploited and which yielded excellent results. Implementation of the project was made easy, exceeding the expectation of most. Unity was a strategy that the stakeholders exploited and which yielded excellent results (Brissconnection 2009). Throughout during the implementation, most of the investors were involved in the team. This greatly facilitated quality control and all processes were transparent such as concrete testing. However, was important to conduct briefings with analysts, brokers and institutional investors and investment community regarding the progress of the Airport link project
A team was selected to oversee the preliminary program of activities that were related to design, delivery and construction. This description was also supposed to include the time taken to carry out each procedure as well as the money allocated for that by the financial team in the project. Quality control was of paramount importance. The concrete used was of high standards. There were required specification for concrete finish, quality and placement. Quality was essential for the road was expected to be of very high quality after completion, since it would be one major transport point as well as a tourist attraction site. To be able to implement this, arrangements were made to ensure safety and operational integrity of the adjacent road network, pedestrian and cycle mobility.
The project has had a history of financial troubles, with BrisConnections having had problems with its share price, which at one stage dropped to below 1c, when it had been issued at $1.In addition to this, there have also been operational issues, and local citizens groups have recently complained to politicians about the disruption to their lives because of work on the tunnel, in particular the loud noise created by work and truck movements associated with the project (Joshua,2011) The Airport tunnel runs through the electorate of federal Treasurer Wayne Swan, who all along had been very critical of the state government’s that were handling the project. There were some major complains from the community about how the government was generally handle the project.
Project outcome
From the above, we can deduce that most of the project constituents went according to plan. Only minimal deviations were encountered in order to make the project a success. Briscconection will be the sole owner of the tunnel with its completion in mid 2012. The state government of Australia is also a major contributor to the project, with a cash injection of $267 million and a total contribution of $1.5bn through other contributions such as land acquisitions. However, Quality was also ensured. This is proof of the importance of proper planning to managers in any given field. However, one should not be rigid and should be open to suggestions. Thus, minimal deviati...