20. Quality assurance and Completion system

Johannes Gollegger, Bane NOR Stine Maria Frøiland Jensen, Bane NOR Lars Arne Berge, Bane NOR

Principles

The Follo Line project has adopted ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems - Requirements for quality management and complies with the environmental management standard ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems - Specification with guidance.

Figure 13.1 demonstrates the pyramid with the main documents which define the process for the quality assurance in the Follo Line project.

Figure 20-1: Quality assurance hierarchy.

The project steering document (PSD) is elaborated and describes Bane NOR’s role as project developer and owner at an overall level and the project task with associated goals.

Performance targets

The project has the following performance objectives, and they are given in order of priority:

1. Health and Safety The project is to be executed with the highest attention to health and safety of individuals.

2. External Environment The project is to be executed without damage to the external environment with restoration time over 10 years, without damage to cultural heritage and identified cultural area of interest as well as ensuring full compliance with permits granted by the authorities. 3. Quality The Contract Object shall meet the specified quality requirements including satisfying requirements for operational time of trains.

4. Cost The project shall be completed within budget.

5. Time The project time was planned in accordance with the revised national budget of 2014, to be operational in 2021. This has been moved to 2022 due to unexpected occurrences.

6. Reputation The project must be carried out in accordance with project objectives so that the National Rail Administration’s reputation as a professional project developer and owner is strengthened. The project shall be completed without damage to surrounding structures and installations of third parties. The project should be executed with the minimum of negative disturbance to third parties (noise, pollution, mass transit on the road).

The quality plan defines responsibilities within the project, project management processes and describes how the project shall secure:

• Compliance with laws and regulations • Compliance with building (construction) permits • Project and Bane NOR’s management system requirements • Achievement of all project goals set out in the

PSD (performance targets) • Quality control of deliveries from contractor • Quality control of deliveries from consultants and subcontractors • Compliance with other stakeholder requirements and expectations

The control plans provide a structure for the followup of contractor’s activities and establishes this in a set of control plans for each discipline. All plans have an owner and all activities in the plans must have one responsible person.

Control plans have been established in line with staff functions within each main area, such as engineering, procurement, construction, railway technology,

HSE, project control, etc.

The area manager is responsible for the respective control plan, including establishment, updating, and carrying out the various control activities in the control plan.

The control plans are continuously revised and updated as the works proceed.

Other Control methods

The project is carrying out a set of systematic control methods to ensure that the products are according to requirements, and that processes used are appropriate and will lead to a satisfactory product.

Therefore, several methods have been used to complete these goals.

Audits

This is an independent review and verification of a process to ensure that the requirements are met. Audits can be performed both in relation to internal processes of client as well as contractor. The contract allows client to participate as an observer on all the audits that contractor is performing both internally and on its subcontractors.

Client is also doing its own audits of contractor in specific areas when required necessary.

The main principle is that audits are made in cases where the situation or issues within an area are unclear. Where the issues are known, other methods are more appropriate.

Control performed by line and staff functions

The individual area managers will identify needs, plans, , check on the various deliveries and processes that are under the individual areas of responsibility. The controls should be both process and product focused. The activities can consist of both verifications under Bane NOR’s own control and participation in controls performed by contractor. The controls must be verified in documented control plans.

Use of 3rd party verification

The Follo Line project’s overall verification and validation plan defines areas in which 3rd party verifications are required.

This should cover all the requirements for the project on independent controls in accordance with laws and regulations, and in accordance with Bane NOR’s own requirements.

Completion system

In the Follo Line project a database completion system has been established, which is used to plan, record and log systematic checks and tests on deliveries in order to establish a detailed overview of the completion status. This is a very thorough process which ensures final controls of the product at a very detailed level

Quality assurance for the EPC Tunnel TBM Contract

At the EPC Tunnel TBM project the above-described process is executed according to the illustration in figure 13-2. All details are defined in the quality assurance follow-up strategy document. Each discipline has outlined all follow-up activities with its responsible person as well as time intervals. For the follow-up at site, electronic check lists in OneNote have been established. They are also on tablet computers, so when inspections at site are performed, people are completing these checklists and can add photographic documentation to the lists. Since the system is online, direct communication with colleagues or their leader in the office can be obtained and immediate actions discussed, if required. If the structure / installation is not in accordance with the design a deviation report is written and communicated to contractor.

Figure 20-2: Quality assurance for the EPC Tunnel TBM contract.

In addition to the internal electronic checklists and non-conformance reports, communication is established between client and contractor via WhatsApp messenger. This allows for direct communication regarding all activities on site, also inside the tunnel. The WhatsApp messenger app is used for sending notifications of quality controls, geological mapping, concreting and daily coordination. If non-conformance are observed during quality inspections, feedback to contractor can be given immediately and corrective measures can be initiated.

Control plans

As described above, the control plan is an important tool for the quality follow-up. All relevant control activities for each discipline are defined in the various control plans, with corresponding control criteria and internal checklists. Control criteria can be requirements in Contract, laws and regulations, European and Norwegian standards, construction drawings and/or contractor’s own procedures and construction method statements.

Contractor is required to develop a quality plan and perform quality control for all works. Construction Method Statements (CMS) and Inspection and Test Plans (ITP) are submitted for all activities on site, and herein contractor describes how the works will be executed and which control activities will be carried out. In the ITP, test methods, frequency of control, type of control documentation and client’s role in contractor’s quality controls are described. For most activities, client assumes the role of observer and attends the controls on a spot check basis. For more critical operations, client can perform quality controls together with contractor’s quality inspectors or perform separate quality inspections.

Contractor’s ITP and quality inspections constitute a part of client’s control plans in terms of performing and documenting control activities, and it can be referred to contractor’s checklists and quality documentation to verify that the internal control plans are followed.

Client follow-up

In the beginning of the project, client’s followup strategy was based on required spot checks. Contractor was by contract obliged to implement a quality management system which should be applicable to all aspects of the Work and part of the EPC concept is that the contractor maintains quality supervision of its own works. However, as the works proceeded, it became apparent that there were discrepancies between client’s expectations for the produced quality and achieved quality level in certain areas. During spot checks some quality non-conformances were identified by client, which had not been reported earlier, most likely due to lack of common understanding. As a result of this, a more frequent and hands-on quality control from client was introduced, with the aim of improving the quality of the final product and avoiding difficult contractual discussions at a later stage. Examples of extra quality activities include audits, separate quality and discipline meetings, frequent quality inspections at site and jointly quality inspections with contractor. The goal was to solve quality issues quickly at discipline level and ensuring that only severe or repetitive quality issues would need to be brought up to management level.

Some examples from the quality control are described in Appendix II

Completion system

The Follo Line project has introduced a systematic completion and test process through a database system. The process structures the activities related to the Mechanical Completion (MC) and Commissioning work, to ensure that client receive the contract object delivered on time, with required quality and functionality.

The main advantages are:

• One common method of work, and one common system (PIMS CMS) for verifications and monitoring of completion and commissioning activities throughout the project. • A continuously documented verification of the work, after construction, installation (MC) and functional testing (Commissioning). • A complete overview of deficiencies (so called punch items), focuses on actions and responsibilities • A complete overview of technical quality at

“hand-over” to client for operations.

By using MC, a project is forced to complete several “quality milestones” before moving on to the next stage. For each quality milestone certain contractual requirements must be fulfilled. All installations will be followed up from engineering until completeness and it also takes care of safety issues and ownership trough all phases.

During the engineering phase a philosophy of how the completion and commissioning is going to be carried out inside an already established system split prior to contract award. Commissioning packages are created and linked to check lists and drawings. In many cases MC resources are coming from construction and will view the scope with other eyes than engineering, which will give the scope an extra quality check based on experience. MC is usually also checking drawings and documents across different disciplines.

MC is following up the production of equipment at the supplier’s factories. For special equipment, FAT (Factory Acceptance Test) and Mechanical Completion checks are done. This is done to ensure that the equipment fulfils the contract requirements, and that all faults and errors are identified and fixed