24 October 2006
Demonstration Project of the Month - Porth Relief Road
The Porth Relief Road is an £85m project to create 7km new road through a long established urban area with severe topographical and environmental constraints.
The project, sponsored by the Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council with funding from the Welsh Assembly, is currently the largest Local Authority highways scheme in 2006 in the UK.
The new road is never more than 10 metres from the river Rhondda Fach and runs along the line of a disused railway. The project will also see the creation of 11 new bridges.
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| The New Relief Road - Cymmer Link. |
The key drivers for the project were to improve the day-to-day lives of the residents of 2500 homes which had been blighted by large traffic densities and to improve accessibility to areas around Porth, including the Rhondda Fach and Fawr valleys. Porth stands at the junction of the two valleys and so acts as a funnel for traffic, hence the resulting bottlenecks which have driven the creation of the relief road. A further motivation for the scheme is the economic regeneration of the area as many local residents commute south to Cardiff for work, adding to the traffic issues.
A start on site was made on 1 June 2005 with the objective of having the road operational by December 2006. What has been vital to the success of the project to date has been the collaborative approach employed by the whole supply chain. The use of Early Contractor Involvement and the New Engineering Contract at the heart of procurement was essential.
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| The New Relief Road - Pontygwaith. |
As main contractor, Costain has recognised the need to engage with stakeholders throughout the programme of work. Workshops were held for utility companies early on to get their views on the proposed programme and to ensure that there would not be any risk to the programme. Residents themselves have been kept informed through exhibitions and presentations. 1000 people have visited the Visitors Centre which is open every Wednesday. Leaflets and newspaper articles have also been produced regularly to inform about upcoming project phases.
As a consequence of the client procurement criteria, Costain also set itself targets to recruit local labour. 47 local people have been recruited to date, far outperforming the project's initial target of 30. In addition 75% of Costain's supply chain expenditure has been within South Wales with four of the six largest sub-contractors being based within the Rhondda Cynon Taf County boundaries. Two Welsh SMEs, Walters and Fairfield, have been engaged as suppliers on the project and have grown as a result of the work they have been awarded.
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| The New Relief Road - Rheola. |
One key issue for the project was sustainability. Due to the Early Contractor Involvement and subsequent value engineering activities, the project has been able to achieve limited waste to landfill, reduced numbers of transport movements and improved numbers of negative environmental impacts as well as reducing target cost by £18m and shortening the planned delivery time by six months.