asta powerproject case study: j breheny contractors

All complex construction works bring their own unique challenges, but with excellent planning, a realistic programme, expert knowledge and the right software they can be seamlessly overcome.

J Breheny Contractors is one of the largest privately owned Civil Engineering companies in the UK. With a high regard for customer care, it has repeatedly proven its ability to complete high standard yet deeply complex builds on time and within cost, even in the most challenging of environments. Breheny believes that using the Asta Powerproject suite for the lifecycle of its projects gives it complete control to respond to changing situations, to be proactive rather than reactive in the development of a project, and to manage with pinpoint accuracy the business-critical sequencing of a project’s schedule.

With more than 40 years’ experience Breheny’s projects range from infrastructure, groundworks and highways, to remediation, marine works and coastal defence for a client base including house developers, commercial industries, major retailers, government authorities and local councils. One of Breheny’s unique strengths is its policy to carry out as much work as possible using its own trained and tested resources, like its 3000-plus items of plant and 400 trained and experienced staff and operatives.

Coastal conditions make accurate scheduling critical

The Margate coastal defence works illustrate how Asta Powerproject is good at managing particularly challenging projects, where the precise sequence of tasks is paramount to the project’s success. It is a tight contract period for certain phases; its sea-front

Case study: J Breheny Contractors

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Asta Powerproject: The power behind successful projects

J Breheny use Asta Powerproject for pinpoint sequencing in coastal defence works

location makes it different from more “predictable” sites. Contractors have to work around environmental constraints which dictate when work can be carried out – for example, migrating birds at the pier means that certain work can be carried out only at certain times of the year, so having everything culminating at a strict deadline is crucial. Working around the tides means that each task has to be planned to suit low tides, whatever time of day. The tidal location has brought the need for a higher quantity of pre-cast units than would be needed on a more traditional site, bringing its own challenges. On top of that, public health and safety has to be at the forefront of the agenda: it’s a public beach, so the area has to be retained for a high level of security.

With so many constraints to be considered, it makes sense for those running the site to be involved in decisions at tender stage. Kevin Taylor,

I can pdf the report for clients and email it, or print a copy if

that is preferred – Asta Powerproject can output

reports far more succinctly than its competitors.

“ “Refacing works on existing sea wall

First piles go in around harbour arm


The software helps us to keep each phase to a tight schedule; it is one of

the largest coastaldefence projects we’ve

ever worked on and timingis everything.

“ “



senior contracts manager, is overseeing the site at Margate. He has a wealth of coastal work experience behind him, “On certain jobs,” he explains, “it’s important to have a collaboration of skills and input when creating the programme at tender stage. It’s more beneficial for us and the customer if realistic targets are set right from the start. So our input is often sought about technical and critical tasks within the project, how they will be managed, how long they might take and the equipment required to carry out the works efficiently and safely.”

“The Margate coastal defence project is particularly complex. It is a revamp of the seafront and promenade, demolition of the old sea flood defence wall and replacing it with a new sea wall of 400m in length. Part of the sea wall is to be reconstructed with precast concrete step blocks creating a terrace for people to use. There is also the old stone harbour arm, the existing harbour arm foundations are to be protected by sheet piling and concrete in-filled, the whole of the stone pier will be groutinjected to fill any existing voids and the whole pier will be resurfaced. The project has many sections and stages, which is further complicated by the tidal conditions and environmental constraints. Having everything precisely planned in Asta Powerproject is essential for the project to run smoothly. The software helps us to keep each phase to a tight schedule; it is one of the largest coastal defence projects we’ve ever worked on and timing is everything. We need to know exactly what we can do when, Asta Powerproject allows us to separate out the tidal from the nontidal times, and what is helpful is that you can see all that in one bar. It’s a more efficient way of working.”

Asta Powerproject helps solve the puzzle

“One of our biggest challenges is the amount of concrete pre-cast units we need for this job,” explained Kevin. “For timing reasons, and so that we are not pouring inset concrete on site in a limited tidal window, we have had to bring in manufactured pre-cast units, a lot of which are individual bespoke

units. Planning to have them produced and delivered in the correct sequence is business-critical. The stepped section of sea wall has steps that go down from the promenade to the beach, these have to be made in a factory then delivered to site. Placing them is

complicated. Most are individual but some are one-offs that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle that has to be pieced together between tides. The steps are constructed from the bottom then work up towards the promenade level; therefore the sequence that you can do things is very specific. You need a lot of expertise for this and really good planning and management software. In Asta Powerproject we can see instructions on size and how that would pan out for speed of use and manage how we will be able to install them before the tide comes in.”

“It’s a one year project, so we have to try to work throughout the whole season, juggling jobs, like piling, around particular times. We have to work around certain times of day because of tidal shifts. When the tide is in, we can work on the promenade and harbour arm and south sea wall above high-tide level. Every day we work around tide timings, using Asta Powerproject to see as-built information on how the programme will work and adjusting the schedule to make the whole puzzle fit together.”

Asta Powerproject’s features fit our business model

Kevin explains how, in an irregular working pattern, they can use certain features of Asta Powerproject to their best advantage: “We like that, even though the nature of the job dictates that work is staggered according to tides and conditions, we don’t have

Grout-injecting to fill any existing voids in upper section of the harbour

The old stone harbour arm pier after strengthing and refurbishment

Every day we work

around tide timings, using

Asta Powerproject to see

as-built information on

how the programme will

work and adjusting

the schedule to make

the whole puzzle fit

together.

““




to portray this in the programme, we don’t have to extend the programme we just work around it. It might be that we work longer to compensate, but the programme stays the same, we can show no break in operation and output and keep a continuous schedule. This is a particularly good feature of Asta Powerproject.”

Tim Canham is contract manager for the site,who manages the project. Tim uses the software more frequently in his role to track progress and reschedule tasks to maintain overall programme and completion dates. He also finds this feature useful: “In Asta Powerproject the number of time periods doesn’t have to be concurrent, we don’t haveto have one long line showing the ‘a to z’ ofdifferent time periods like in other software.What we find more efficient in our programme is that we can have the line split out into tasks, and jobs in target bars. Splitting tasks is definitely the most useful feature which other software just doesn’t have. The shadow line feature is also useful, it lets us look back to previous projects and see how we performed against actual programme,” explained Tim. “The programme also allows us to see distinct sections of the sea wall, for example. This is really useful, we can split it into areas and work out when we need to work on them and between which dates. We can then break that down further to see what we need on

The installation of the first precast step revetment unit

Installation of the lower section of the stepped revetment

which date in that time period.”

“I also use Asta Powerproject to give progress updates on jobs,” continued Tim. “I can pdf the report for clients and email it, or print a copy if that is preferred – Asta Powerproject can output reports far more succinctly than its competitors, so the customer doesn’t get pages to sift through. It can all be managed on one page.”

“My reports to senior management are sent back to the office and stored on the server so anyone can access them. Elecosoft wrote a macro for us which takes measurements and data from the programme and puts them in an Excel

version for reporting; it makes it much easier for us to regularly update the programme.”

Kevin summarises: “Asta Powerproject also provides us with a documented story of how the project is performing and acts as a delay management tool. If we are in delay with a specific part of the schedule, it shows us where the delay is or where it is likely to be and we can see where we can compensate for it: which tasks we could bring forward to get that time back to shave some time off the delay. Sometimes it means doing additional work at the end of the day - it’s an on-going juggling act - but the software keeps it all on track.”

asta powerproject case study: j breheny contractors

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