PJM535 Project Metrics and Control: Construction Plan for the US-69

Define Project Success

Answer:

The Project and its Scope

The project comprises of the widening of the US-69 bridges over Wade Watts Ave and the Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad.

The construction plan for the US-69 in the construction sector will be effective structuring bride for meeting the current and future needs. The project will raise the continuous construction standard. The plan will be beneficial for the purpose of decreasing the road accidents and traffic jams on the road. A process needs to be developed for energizing and mediating the process, utilizing the interactive construction based methodology process. The project will comprise of many stages like the initiation of the project, its planning, execution, and closure. The estimated expenditure on the construction is expected to be of 13 million dollars. This project will involve the construction of roads, on and off road ramps, J turns and re-stripping allocated to the Koss Instruction company. The main scope of this project is that it will be leading to easy access towards the traveling, transportation and the development of technology (Walker, 2015).

Project objectives and intended outcomes

The main focus of the construction plan for the US-69 I the public so that the public does not face much of traffic congestion. Some of the relevant objectives of the project are:

• To access the project completion target by the end of March 2018
• Completing the project in the budget of 13 million Dollars
• Making the new roads wider and on and off the bridge with the use of optimum utilization of the resources
• Managing transportation of the US

Assessment of the Objectives

Completion of Project on Time: The main objective of this project is to offer a pathway through US-69 for the purpose of mitigating the traffic and accidents factor. This main objective will be achieved only when the employees working on the project will be completing the project without any delays by March 2018 (Serpella, Ferrada, Howard, & Rubio, 2014). Though practically finalizing a date for eth construction is not used as many factors might be affecting the project of US-169, which are: ongoing traffic, shortage of labor, lack of resources and much more. But still, it is the responsibility of the project manager to manage such limitations and complete the work on time. The objective is however achievable as the project time management will be done by adding a J-turn on US-69 on the northbound frontage road between Peaceable Rd. and Kinkead Rd. This is a temporary construction for allowing alternative access to US-69 from the frontage roads as access from Peaceable Rd. and Comanche Rd will be closed. This will be replaced in a future reconstruction project by a permanent turnaround; This act will not stop traffic and it will also not affect the construction work which will help in achieving target completion date (Sears, Sears, Clough, Rounds, & Segner, 2015).

• Completing the project in the budget of 13 million Dollars: Cost management is the most difficult objective of this project as the cost of the material and labor keeps unchanging. However, these can be maintained if waste management is done in proper manner by the company
• Making the new roads wider and on and off the bridge with the use of optimum utilization of the resources: This objective is achievable by implementing some hard steps for the construction project. One of the steps is to divide the workers into shift so that they work effectively.
• Managing transportation of the US: This objective is important as no one can afford traffic congestion because of construction as it will increase traffic timings and chances of accidents. For this purpose removal of the signalized light at Peaceable Rd. and Comanche Rd. and permanently closing direct access to these roads from US-69; This will allow the traffic to find other way and not through the construction site(Pournader, Tabassi, & Baloh, 2015).

Intended Outcomes

• After achieving the above-discussed outcomes, the main intended outcome will be the lower rate of the issues of road transportation and traffic issues
• Employing the analysis of the risk, constructability and quality control
• Management of contract documentation
• The management of road will enhance the road services that will lead to improvements in the infrastructure.
• Employment and support will enhance which will augment the accessibility towards the economy (Sikich, 2017)

Success factor with justification

For this project success mainly means the satisfaction of the stakeholders of the project, achieving the set budget, meeting up the objectives of projections, meeting up the scheduled activities, meeting the requirements of the quality and satisfied employees of the project team

Justification

1. Achieving the Set Budget: Construction company has established a budget of 13 million dollars for the project and so the success of the project will be accomplished only when the operations of the construction gets completed within the time and within the cost of 13 million dollar
2. Meeting up the projected objectives: The project will be considered a successful one only when it will be complete with the objectives established by the construction company within time and cost.  
3. Meeting Quality requirements: As the end result of the project is the US-69 construction and any kind of mismanagement in the quality will lead to bad results of traffic congestion or road accidents. So it is very important to meet out the quality needs. Quality assurance is one of the main factors for the success of the project as poor quality will lead to many issues like the additional cost for the US government and the contractor for repairing and the work redone. In case the road quality fails then it will cause injuries and death of public(Laurance, et al., 2014).
4. Satisfied employees of the project team: for completing the project as per the needs, it is essential that the team be satisfied, happy and they all trust each other. The project of US-69 is a construction project and it will require day and night shifts which is not going to be possible without the strong bond of employer and employees. The construction company needs to offer adequate resources and proper time to work so that they become satisfied. A satisfied employee will work effectively and the end result will be perfect.

Project success evaluation by comparison of objectives and outcome

The main objective of this project is to widen the US-69 bridge. Construction of the on and off ramps from the US-69 to the frontage road near the Wade Ave. North of the Comanche Ave for the purpose of channelizing a load of traffic, overlaying and restriping of the road frontage within the budget of 13 million dollars and a year deadline for accomplishment. For achieving this goal, manager of the project concerns about the time, budget, resource management, quality control, health, time management, financial issues, the morale of team and supply of material.  Because of the widening of the road, transportation will become quite comfortable, traveling time will reduce, improved infrastructure and economic growth. For this, the success criteria will be to complete by the end of March 2018 so that the stakeholders become happy on timely completion and road issues get reduced. Moreover, just timely completion won't be the benchmark for the success of the project. Managers of the project have to make sure that the employees are managing the resources inadequate way so that wastage can be reduced and cost can be maintained. This project will be considered successful when it will meet the quality standards, timely completion by March 2018 and within the estimated cost of 13 million dollars. Timely documentation of the staff members, work in progress reports are essential documentation of the project and they need to be prescribed authorities on time are also part of successful management. With the above discussion, the project can mainly be considered as successful by getting the positive outcomes as planned

Key challenges to achieving project success and ways to Mitigate the same

In the successful completion of the project, many issues will occur in front of the manager of the project. Some of the issues have been illustrated below:

• Adoption of Technology: In the current time technology changes rapidly and it gets difficult to make employees use the new tools so randomly. It is a major challenge for the project. For the purpose of mitigating this challenge, the owners of the project needs to make understand the employees working on the project the importance of the new tools and techniques so that they adopt the same
• Meeting of Deadline: Natural calamities like climatic changes, seasonal labor, irregular supply of materials and weather calamities are some of the issues which can restrain the project from completing on time. Strict schedule management is the only way to mitigating this risk.  
• Communication: Communication gaps can create discrepancies in the project management. Any kind of mismanagement in the communication can develop serious issues. For the management of effective communication, it is essential to have open communication with the stakeholders. This will involve clarity in objective’s understanding. The team members need to be informed about the proceedings at senior level, as this will make them feel more involved in the process.  
• Inadequate flow of cash: Because of the weakened economic condition, cost of raw material, the flow of cash can get mismanaged. For the purpose of maintaining adequate cash flow, finance manager needs to allocate sufficient budget into contingency budget so that in any kind of calamity contingency fund can be used
• Shortage of Skilled labor: It is a big challenge to arrange the skilled labors on time as the project of construction required skilled and specific labor. For the purpose of mitigating this challenge, recruitment needs to be done on timely manner so that required skilled labor can be appointed on time and the project does not suffer in between
• Risk management: Risk-like, financial risk, physical risk, economic risk and social risk can anytime target the project. These risks can be maintained by forecasting their advent and impact so that strategies can be defined in advance to manage them(Chang, Chou, Lin, & & Hsu, 2013).

References

Chang, A. P., Chou, C. C., Lin, J. D., & & Hsu, C. Y. (2013). Road construction project environmental impact assessment scope definition using project definition rating index (PDRI). . In Advanced Materials Research (Vol. 723, pp. 885-892). Trans Tech Publica.

Laurance, W. F., Clements, G. R., Sloan, S. O., C. S., M., D., N., Goosem, M. .., & Van Der Ree, R. (2014). A global strategy for road building. . Nature, 513(7517), 229.

Pournader, M., Tabassi, A. A., & Baloh, P. (2015). A three-step design science approach to develop a novel human resource-planning framework in projects: the cases of construction projects in USA, Europe, and Iran. . International journal of project management.

Sears, S. K., Sears, G. A., Clough, R. H., Rounds, J. L., & Segner, R. O. (2015). . Construction project management. . John Wiley & Sons.

Serpella, A. F., Ferrada, X., Howard, R., & Rubio, L. (2014). Risk management in construction projects: a knowledge-based approach. . Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, 653-662.

Sikich. (2017). Constructionchallenges. Retrieved from Sikich.com: https://www.sikich.com/findsolution/industries/construction/construction-challenges

Walker, A. (2015). Project management in construction. . John Wiley & Sons.