Methodology of transportation project management

Abstract

All large projects, from their inception to their completion, follow certain procedures, when undergoing evaluations of different designs, while at the same time, assuring project functionality at realistic costs which are acceptable to the owner. To keep project costs within certain parameters, there is a need to begin the project with a realistic budget and to have some reliable pricing data. In addition, during the development phase, the project cost must be recalculated and, if necessary, readjusted. Another way to increase the project value or to decrease the cost is to perform Value Engineering, i.e. an analysis of project functionality, specifications, tender documents and other project aspects by a team of experts. This paper describes Value Engineering and how such experts' efforts would be applied and benefit transportation projects. The methodology of design of logistics terminal is presented, including related transport network as an example of a large transport project for the use of Value Engineering. Transport projects can be classified as financially demanding and also with regard to the project planning as demanding projects. Due to the necessary control of costs for preparation and implementation of these projects, value project management (Value Engineering) is included in the proposed methodology. Furthermore from the engineering phase of the project to the decision-making phase on implementation of the project, a heuristic expert model that is able to determine various cost items without detailed engineering documentation, is included in the proposed methodology. However, this model has to work with the normative of individual components of transport projects based on historical data of implemented projects, forecasts of construction materials and other documents. The result financially is a significantly cheaper version of the project, to the decision-making phase on implementation of the project. Listed methodology for the preparation of transport projects with the inclusion of a heuristic expert model for the preliminary determination of costs and with the inclusion of the value project management (Value Engineering) has not yet been implemented in the Czech Republic. In recent years, the expert team of the Faculty of Transportation Sciences at Czech Technical University in Prague has been working in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport and other entities The norms transportation projects 2008 (MOOS, P. et al. (2007)) Structure of sets of normative standardized of segments of road transport constructions - assessment of the situation in EU countries and other available countries in the form of benchmarking, which will be one of the inputs to the described methodology if doing updates. The implementation of this methodology to real design practice would not be an easy task, but with regard to the amount of investment funds to transportation projects, the impact could be unexpectedly significant.