Client Objectives: Always spends adequate time with the client or client representative to ensure that the client’s requirements are fully understood so that we can provide a service directly correlative to those requirements. All too often client requirements are miss-interpreted and / a designer can too quickly impart their own perception of what the client wants. Once fully confident in his understanding of the client’s objectives Tony will cascade this through to the relevant team members, and validate progressive work thus ensuring that any deviation from this is managed, discussed and either approved or rejected by the client.

Guidelines and Procedures: Once practice guidelines and procedures are fully understood Tony keeps a bullet point check list to ensure both himself and staff dedicated to the team are aware and cohesive in there adherence.It is important to undertake random mini audits of process and discuss in interim reviews, completing with a specific stage or gateway programme milestone review. 

Development: As an experienced estimator through all early stages (concept and masterplanning through option selection to reference design and tender stages) it is essential to be fully coherent in the pitfalls that only experience can mitigate (EG what’s not on the drawing, what risks are associated with the type of scheme, activity or location etc.). Tony has acted as mentor to many new estimators over the years, being a great believer in knowledge sharing and personal development and taking pride in being able to assist and advise where experience allows.

Interpretation: It is paramount to fully understand the level of information provided, and asses whether this is commensurate to the associated design stage. From general arrangements, technical drawings, schematics, phasing plans, previous studies and plans such as surface access, temporary work stages, phasing, stakeholder management etc.

Quantum: To be fully coherent in quantum through all disciplines, and be able to clearly set out material schedules to different Standard Methods or Measurement. (RMM, CESMM, NRM, SMM, BCIS, Uniformat , MMHW etc.) Tony will maintain responsibility for the review process thus ensuring adherence to the measurement rules and structure, by estimating staff.

Project Productivity: To be fully capable of determining productivity outputs and programme based activities. This is achieved by using a combination of published method study information, and by working closely with numerous contractors to establish a base line for time related costs and activities.

Rates: Commensurate do a given design stage, project costs will start out as a range of benchmark data to help establish a budget. As the design evolves so the costs become for technical and will also evolve through composite all in rates to known rates and finally first principle built up rates, which are at every stage validated by setting against current cost data models, analysis’ and Benchmarking.

Escalation: When estimating for a project it is important to know the dates and durations of the envisaged scheme as this can determine a significant uplift to project outturn costs, and also establish a 'Net Present Value' for investors. We provide due consideration to escalation relative to future projects, using either CPI or RPI or other known inflation considerations as advised by a client.

Contingency: To provide accurate cost advice through Risk & Value Management meetings during development and design stages, and risk modelling cost advice through reference design stages. At later design stages it i sometimes usual to invite a contractor under an 'Early Contractor Involvement' (ECI) contract, to provide advise on specific programme risks and mitigations.

Estimating outputs: Tony has been producing all types of estimate reports and cost plans through all design stages for over 20 years. He is mentor to less experienced staff with a real belief in continual personal and professional development. He will determine the type of estimate and level of accuracy commensurate to the design stage at which the estimate is being produced. He will have the ultimate approval for all estimates and reports prior to submission to the client.

Review: Tony is responsible for the interim and final review of all outputs (cost plans, estimates and reports) prior to draft submission to clients. It is a self imposed KPI which is based on the KPI’s set out for the estimating team. This continues to determine that set timescales are met or risk mitigates, and are to the standard expected by the Estimating Director prior to formal submission to a client.

Historical data: The whole team is responsible for collating cost data and modelling at the completion of each commission (KPI) and Tony is ultimately responsible for managing all cost capture and its future use in budget setting or budget / cost validation and benchmarking. It is essential the way the data is stored and used in a data base to make benchmarking and unit cost modelling easier.

Development: Being responsible for development Tony is a critical and significant ambassador for the Estimating Practice. He maintains client and stakeholder management and maintains circa 50% of turnover as repeat business, whilst exponentially growing the practice through new clients, cross sector and practice selling. He is very comfortable and proficient in business development. He is Key Accounts Manager.

Workload: Tony is responsible for coordinating workload between cross practice abilities and teams within a commission. He ensures and authorises timesheets and is responsible for internal staff welfare, reviews, and performance reviews of consultants.

Major Projects

Riyadh Metro

Duties include but are not limited to managing the estimating and validation of change notices (potential and current), Claims and Determinations, and Risk.

The effect of cost and programme influencing change events for all track, civils, rail systems and highways. He supervises the estimators and reviewed all outputs prior to issue to the Package Manager and then Client.

Client approval or declination of change event costs were based on the recommendations and outputs of the estimating outputs and observations

Network Rail

Managing the estimating and cost planning functions on a variety of schemes spanning 6 year work bank. Tony has numerous teams located geographically across the south west from London to Swansea.

Tony is principle liaison to all stakeholders and early contractor involvement (ECI) to ensure best value is agreed prior to final design stage. Tony also manages Risk, Value Engineering and Change Control meetings. He is responsible for ensuring that all estimates are validated against current and recent benchmarking data, and has the final sign off for internal reviews.

New Head Quarters Building, Saudi Arabian Civil Aviation Authority, Riyadh, KSA

To provide a flagship building for the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority, adjacent to the new Terminal 5 of King Khaled International Airport.

Tony managed the production of tender design stage estimates, cost management advice and tender stage Bills of Quantities.

He also worked very closely, sometimes co located, with designers to manage the ‘design to budget’ remit. Produced interim stage estimates through the design stages to tender stage to ensure client’s budget was not exceeded.

Held regular value engineering workshops with architects, engineers and stakeholders to challenge scope creep from the original clients brief. Advised on budgetary and funding issues, and challenged the extent of the surface access and stage 2 passive provision to maintain permissible budget costs.

Presented the cost report to the client and stakeholders on site and upheld the contents of the final outputs to attain acceptance from the client.

Hamad International Airport Phase 2, Doha, Qatar

Proposed expansion in capacity for the recently opened New Doha International Airport (NDIA) comprising extension to central pier, and new satellites.

Tony was tasked with providing final output of cost scoring and reports against three considerations for expansion. Each design option required scoring against the following criteria:

Cost – Estimates for each option with a level of accuracy commensurate to the design stage. Included in the estimates were considerations not just for construction, but allowances for out of hours programmed activities, temporary works and land take, temporary and permanent access (surface access and metro station), compensations to airlines and retailers affected by phasing and temporary closures or relocations.

Risk – The logistical impacts of working in a live airport environment. Phasing of works both out on the Apron, and extending the terminal building whilst maintaining a security break. Access to the site both temporary and permanent.

Value – Workshops were held with all stakeholders to obtain the experience of everyone involved to work towards the most efficient working practices and management of the programme.

Programme – Each option for expansion held a unique challenge to the anticipated programme. The key requires a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of working in this type of environment, especially access to the site.

Each option cost report was comprehensively written to give assurance and confidence in the consideration and process undertaken to reach the output. This enabled the scrutiny of the reports and for Tony to defend the content therein when challenged.

Consideration was also given for future proofing the airport for further expansion (phase 3).

Airports Commission, London Gatwick Airport Expansion

Expansion of Gatwick airport comprising a second runway & associated taxi ways and taxi lanes, new terminal, piers and satellites, extensive land take and relocation of commercial and airport ancillary buildings and major highways and surface access remodelling.

Tony managed cost management and advice during feasibility and option design stages to both advance and validate the design options into three for the Airports Commission’s public consultation.

Stakeholder engagement comprised regular meetings with Airport department heads, the Highways and Environmental agencies, to ensure all logistical aspects of the proposals were duly considered. Designers and master planners were continually challenged to ensure confidence in robust cost reports that would stand up to challenge from Stakeholders, Government, Local Authorities, and in turn the local community. Final outputs were used for Gatwick Airport Ltd Masterplan presentation at board and government level.

Doha Metro, Qatar - Red and Gold Lines

Sub-surface metro system beneath the financial and diplomatic quarter in the city of Doha, also known initially as the West Bay Automated People Mover. The initial scope was for Bored, Cut & Cover and Mined tunnels to create a metro system beneath the existing highways, with 19 stations including 1 major interchange station.

Tony assisted in developing early stage cost plan for the tunnelling, ventilation, highways, landscaping and stations. Value engineering and budget formation. Split the estimate into relevant packages and managed the estimating process. Audit of measures and validation of composite rates.

Chaired estimating review meetings with client (Qatari Diar) and design consultants to review working assumptions and identify future value engineering opportunities and risk.

Due to the nature of West Bay being mostly reclaimed land, the footprint of the metro lines was extremely challenging to miss existing buildings’ foundations and basements, hence the need to alternate tunnelling construction to achieve radial bends in line with the existing highways. By working closely with tunnelling engineers we were able to value engineer the estimate by circa $80m by reducing the extent of cut & cover and utilising the TBM’s more extensively, thus reducing the disruption to the existing highways and landscaping. 

East London Line extension phase 1

Tony was the estimating manager for the Change Control process. He managed all sub contract changes and claims in accordance with the contract terms. Implementing early warnings, compensation events and programme adjustments.

Tony and his team of 5 estimators would produce validation estimates for project or client instigated change and value engineering. He would attend regular change meetings with the client TfL and agree estimate value for incorporation within the target cost. Preparation of claim documentation comprising validation of contract administration procedures under NEC target Cost, reporting on administration of change control and validating estimated change and programme impacts.

London Underground Station Regeneration

Mentor and Lead Project Surveyor Tony managed the framework contract for the embankment stabilisation programme and track drainage renewals with a combined budget of £30m.

NEC3rd edition option A Framework Contract. Managing and auditing quotations and tenders prior to contract award to ensure all aspects, prices and quantities are correct and agreed. Issued contract packages under the framework and administered the contract via the MPS CCM contract management software and authorising payments via the Ellipse finance system. Tony was responsible for contractors’ accounts, valuations, early warnings, compensation events and agreeing variations. Claims management with contractors before final account settlement, meant that final accounts were always mutually agreed without further claims.

King Khaled International Airport Expansion

Expansion of international airport comprising a new main terminal processor (connecting terminals 3 and 4), piers and apron reconfiguration along with new energy and load centres. The design principally followed the existing Masterplan and the Optioneering evolved around the use of the piers.

Tony provided pre contract cost management budget advice and tender Bills of Quantities. Produced budget estimates at uniformat 2 level 3 at concept design stage, and to level 4 at reference design stage and for use at tender stage.

Estimates reflected the correlating levels of security associated with whether the piers were domestic, international or mixed, and the impact on the type of gate lounge required.

Included in the estimates were considerations for buildability, out of hours programmed activities, temporary works and extensive interfaces with existing terminal buildings hence phasing of the demolition activities and adjustments to staff security lines.

Formation of work sites within a live apron required extensive knowledge of the local airport operations and heavy stakeholder engagement was essential.

Value engineering workshops were held regularly with all designers to manage and challenge any options considered as over engineered or clients nice to have. In particular we value engineered the curtain walling façade from full bomb proof option to standard heavy duty product and reducing the cost of the glazing and the secondary steelwork considerably, offering a circa $35m saving , and de-risked the likelihood by suggesting alternative mitigations.

The final output cost report was comprehensively written with the buy in of all stakeholders and as such offered great confidence when presenting to the client at the airport presentation.

King Khaled International Airport and Energy Centres LC2 & LC3, Riyadh, KSA

Managed the measurement and production for LC2& LC3. Produced budget cost planning and estimating from concept to reference design stage

Utilities connections via service tunnel from Energy centres to terminal buildings comprising chilled, hot, fire & potable water, LV and MV energy. Waste and sewerage connections to existing outfalls from terminal and Energy centre buildings and all associated surface access and landscaping.

New Doha International Airport (NDIA) Phase 1 (Hamad International Airport)

New international airport on reclaimed land with entire new infrastructure and ancillary buildings.

Tony was responsible for validating change. Client change was assessed by formulating an estimate for budgetary approval from the steering committee, and then offered to the owner of the particular contract package for their assessment of cost. Ensuring scope is fully understood and priced accordingly to limit future claims.

Contractor change would be assessed for validity by engineers and relevant stakeholders and if accepted, then the cost impact would be either challenged or validated by the production of an independent estimate.

Regular Value Engineering meetings were held with contractors and site engineers to ascertain areas for constant improvement. The contractors would produce their assessment for each change which would then be either challenged or validated independently by Tony’s team.

Bi weekly meetings were held with contractors to agree values for each change. Once agreed the signed change control was passed to the Contract Administrators for implementation. Monthly meetings were held with the Steering Committee to provide reports on change and cost control whereby agreed changes would be randomly selected for scrutiny to ensure the correct validation procedures had been adhered to.

Upon receipt of claims Tony would interrogate the process in which change had been managed; the contract administration, acceptance of change, nature of change, reason for change, independent cost review of change.

Network Rail Thameslink programme, London Bridge, Western Structures

Redevelopment of London Bridge Railway station and new local structures to accommodate new and realigned Railway. Bermondsey Dive under to separate Brighton Line form Kent lines, Western Structure to accommodate 2 new lines coming into new elevated platforms from Borough Viaduct. Strengthening works to 52 local bridges.

Developed GRIP 3 and 4 estimate reports for all civil engineering structures. Managed the entire GRIP governance process in order to achieve DfT funding for the various packages.

Set up the estimates using RIB estimating software, managed team of estimators, carried out peer reviews and wrote all Stage Gate reports for Network Rail. Took GRIP 2 budgets and managed designers ‘design to budget’ remit which meant attending all design, value engineering and risk meetings.

Worked closely with design teams occasionally co-located to ensure technical and cost queries were swiftly dealt with. Built strong relationships of trust with all designers and Network Rail engineering teams, thus ensuring confidence in outputs that were delivered ahead on time consistently.

Bridge strengthening was initially a desk top study from historical survey data, duly aligning with new survey information. Worked closely with Engineering and structural engineers to develop the most cost effective means of undertaking repairs and local replacements. Programme management allowed the successful integration of work packages within existing maintenance possessions thus saving circa £3m in preliminaries and possession costs.

Redline Metro, Israel

Managed the production of a budget estimate for 22km light rail from Bat Yam to Patah Tikva, 11KM Cut and Cover and 11km at grade following the Highway, with a station stop every 1km, and a depot.  

Particular challenges were the major civils interfaces with highways and junctions. Value engineering exercise for second design stage and subsequent revisions of the cost plan. Tony also undertook the auditing of cost engineers’ work and administered changes and updates as required with the constant flow of new design information and client instruction.

Edinburgh Tram Link

Tony managed the re-measure and cost reviews of final phase of the Tram link programme to validate costs and advise on value engineering opportunities, for the re-base lining of the final stage of the programme. Forensic audit of accounts in preparation for claims management validating approved change, estimate change, programme adjustments and contract administration.

Worked closely with the existing PM team to ascertain areas of failure during the programme and advised on strategies to ensure the successful completion of the final reduced phase within a revised budget.

STIP 1, TFL Structures & Bridges Investment Programme

Tony was responsible for managing the estimate production and reports for the repairs and reconstruction of various structures across London: Hammersmith Flyover, Chiswick Bridge, and numerous Road & Rail bridges. Liaison with engineers to establish correct level and interpretation of scope and client requirements. Tony managed all aspects of cost and budget planning at post feasibility stage.

Successfully delivered all estimates and cost reports on time and to a high standard. Undertook value engineering exercises for budgetary analysis with TfL engagement to ensure acceptance of suggested solutions. Regular client liaison at TfL offices, engineering strategies and construction methodology. Auditing Cost Engineers work and administering changes and updates as required.

High Speed 2

New High Speed rail link. Remit was to validate costs for earth balancing, Tunnelling and the utilisation of existing structures and railway lines. Tony was part of a team employed to validate the existing hybrid Bill and to highlight any areas for concern in particular with regard to volumes of mass excavation and contaminated material, the re-use of material, the tunnelling costs, and the bringing back into use of existing viaducts and disused railway lines. The final output was a comprehensive report validating the existing Bill, along with consideration to differences in costs or quantities.

Tony also managed a second remit which was to consider the prospect of utilising the existing infrastructure with local enhancements. The reason for this was to validate the need for HS2 over the enhanced existing infrastructure. He managed the estimating process for over £30b of estimates which looked at upgrading the existing infrastructure along with smaller new line sections, loops and grade separations to allow a new high speed line to run on the existing network without disruptions to existing timetables. This allowed an informed decision to be made by the DfT as to the validation of the requirement of HS2 as a programme.

Moatize Freight Rail expansion, Mozambique and Malawi

To provide a new 800km freight rail link from Tete to the eastern ports of Mozambique, via Malawi.

This role was to provide an audit in the form of a re-measure and validation estimates for the cut & fill and earth balancing across mountain terrain, and produce cost estimate for several major river bridges. The purpose was to validate existing estimates and earth balancing measured volumes from contractor on site.

Qatar Railways, Doha, Qatar                                                                                                     

Tony was responsible for the delivery of cost planning and early stage budget estimates relating to civil engineering structures which would carry the high speed links out of Doha and across the desert to the north east ports. Structures comprised bored tunnel, ramps and grade separations where the railway transitioned to an elevated structure. This was high level cost planning to enable budgets to be set when considering the route, terrain and constraints of crossing the desert.

Crossrail Stations

Station redevelopment within the Crossrail network to refurbish and rearrange existing station buildings, new steel framed and RC concrete station buildings. New Over-bridges, platform extensions signal moves, OLE reassignment, PWay, platform canopies and decommissioning old station buildings. Tony managed [RIB ready] GRIP 3 and 4 cost estimates for Crossrail stations. Producing programme based financial forecasts. Auditing cost engineers’ work and administering changes and updates to the option selection and stage gate reports as required. Tony managed value engineering exercises for cost analysis, and attended all design and risk meetings in order to respond to cost related queries and inputs in a timely and positive way.

London Gatwick Airport - Retail and Fit out

Tony managed the BAA second Tier contractor, responsible for all BAA property and airport schemes up to £250k, plus airport planned and reactive maintenance.

Tony’s role was to agree work scopes with BAA engineers for all refurbishment and new schemes relating to BAA property; retail units shell & core, fit out, gate lounge refurbishments, fit out of new airline check in desk and airline staff areas, refurbishment and reconfiguration of offices (Destinations, Atlantic house, Concorde house etc.) refurbishment of airside maintenance and baggage handling facilities.

Once scope agreed with BAA and stakeholder/s Tony would create a works breakdown structure and provide an estimate for the work scope. In doing so there would be logistical meetings with airline stakeholders when required to agree the phasing of the works to cause the minimum disruption to live operations.

Tony would then commercially manage each contract whilst continuing to liaise with stakeholders and client.