client | The Moray Council

“I challenged the team to deliver flood alleviation and complement the environment. My measure of success was the scheme should be ‘invisible’ and prevent flooding. Not only was the challenge met, it was delivered ahead of programme and under budget.”

Peter Haslam, Project Sponsor, The Moray Council

Moray Flood Alleviation - Project Management

Royal HaskoningDHV was appointed as consultants Royal HaskoningDHV was commissioned in 2000 and has to provide a broad range of services including project been involved throughout as part of an integrated team management across one of the most successful flood working with client and sponsor Moray Council, contractor alleviation programmes in the country. Delivered Morrison Construction and cost consultant Arcadis under budget and already providing significant (formerly EC Harris). return on investment for Moray Council, the £180million programme has taken over 15 years to The programme as a whole involved designs to make complete and has protected thousands of homes and room for the river – including the construction of set-back businesses in four towns across the Moray region of defences, demolition and rebuilding of bridges to open up Scotland – Lhanbryde, Rothes, Forres and Elgin. water courses, construction of dams to create flood water storage reservoirs, construction of a pumping station, The mission of Moray Flood Alleviation was to alleviate the major works to trunk roads and relocation of businesses misery of flooding for communities in Moray. Created as a and homes. response to the devastating floods that affected thousands of properties and caused millions of pounds worth of A key part of each project was the fact that each flood damage during the 1990s and early 2000s, the programme alleviation scheme incorporated amenities for the local covers five flood alleviation schemes in four towns, and community to make use of, including park areas and playing saw investment from both the Moray Council and the fields, wetlands, habitats and water courses, as well as miles Scottish Government. of cycleways and footpaths. Throughout the project Royal HaskoningDHV conducted gateway reviews to check that the changes implemented through design and construction of the flood prevention measures were still in line with the original objectives, budget and programme. Achieving 50% return on investment for vital flood protection

Tamzen Pope, Design and Construction Team Leader at In the 10 years since the first scheme was completed, the Royal HaskoningDHV, was the project manager for one of Moray Council has already seen a return on investment the schemes in Elgin. “We wanted the flood defences to be of over 50% of the total investment made in the scheme. integrated into the landscape and community – solutions Benefits across all five projects have already brought shouldn’t just be functional, they should be desirable and savings of £86.4million from flood prevention. an asset for the future.” Lessons learned along the way have also enabled the team Royal HaskoningDHV project managed all five schemes to make substantial cost savings for the Council, resulting from feasibility to construction as well as one of in the entire programme being delivered 7% under budget. the schemes through construction. At the peak of the programme, more than 180 people from Royal Royal HaskoningDHV offered a wealth of expertise on HaskoningDHV were working on the Elgin scheme alone. each individual scheme including the feasibility studies, option appraisal, detailed design, Environmental Impact Assessments, discharge of conditions and site supervision. On the project management side, there were three key areas in which the team was involved:

1. Stakeholder Management The team took a very structured approach with statutory stakeholders, using informal discussion and debate to support and guide formal consultation at key stages of the development of each scheme. A more ‘open doors’ policy was adopted with the local community and those directly affected by flooding. Local exhibitions, newsletters and surgeries were undertaken, inviting feedback throughout each development.

In Elgin, for example, there were three main ways in which the flooding problem could have been solved. Once it was determined that completing works throughout the town would be the most effective option a lot of effort was put in to explain to key stakeholders why this option was preferred. The proof of success was seen in submitting the planning 2. Risk Management application, where the number of objectors had gone Throughout the project, the team took a broad approach from being in the hundreds to just a handful. to risk management, identifying what might set each scheme back, make each scheme more expensive, or be Seb Jones, founder of Speyside Craft Brewery, explained less acceptable to the local community. By identifying and how the scheme in Forres has benefited him as a local implementing actions to avoid or mitigate risks as well business owner: as setting monetary values for those risks that remained, there were no surprises further down the line. “The Moray Flood Alleviation team have done a great job of improving our safety and enhancing the local “Managing risk is a very important part of good project landscape. They have always kept me informed of any management. At Elgin we had a massive issue with works that might affect my business or cause disturbance 300,000m³ of contaminated land and we worked with but frankly, having seen the potential flood that was stakeholders to establish an earthworks strategy that avoided in August 2014, no disturbance would have been avoided taking it to landfill through treating it on site too great. It will give us all the confidence to further and reusing it. We saved the Council £5million that way,” invest, creating jobs and prosperity in the local area. I commented Tim Ellingham, Project Director at congratulate everyone on a job well done.” Royal HaskoningDHV.

With the inevitable changes that occur on projects, tight procedures were implemented to manage change and assess impact not only to the project concerned but also the other four projects running in parallel. The opportunity was maximised to share lessons learned across the five projects.

“We took a fairly structured approach to make sure that we were constantly looking to improve,” commented Tim. “We held regular ‘Lessons Learned’ workshops with the whole team at key stages on each scheme, and these then fed into how we were working on the other schemes.”

The Royal HaskoningDHV team has extensive experience in project management and integrating with various local communities to enable them to work from a position of mutual trust. In Moray, this helped to make sure that the communities had confidence in Royal HaskoningDHV and that the team is adding real value to their lives. 3. ECC Project Manager Royal HaskoningDHV seconded Barbara Hellett, Associate Director at Royal HaskoningDHV, to the Moray Council for the construction phase of the Forres scheme. In this role, Barbara was directly responsible for managing the council’s £45million budget during the 2-year construction period.

“Given my work with the design team earlier in the project, I had a great wealth of knowledge to bring to this phase of the project. My focus was on managing change as well as reporting on progress and managing stakeholders. The project was delivered on time and 15% below budget, which is a great demonstration of what can be achieved through good teamwork,” Barbara concluded. 00430-cs-mac-mo-rhdhv-1015-gb-v01-cwa The programme as a whole showcases Royal HaskoningDHV’s extensive experience in project management and integrating with multiple stakeholders on large-scale complex projects.

Barbara Hellett T: +44 (0)1733 373553 M: +44 (0)7747 635115 E: [email protected]

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