Here are some articles and industry guidelines we’ve written in collaboration with our partners, NZTS and ITA. You might find them useful – you can find links to download the publications below.
Geotechnical Baseline Reports: A Guide for New Zealand Practitioners
The main objective of this New Zealand Tunneling Society (NZTS) Guide is to provide broad advice to practitioners in New Zealand. This advice is designed to improve risk management practices for procuring tunnels and underground projects, and assist in their administration.
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This NZTS Guide is intended to be a companion to the ASCE ‘Geotechnical Baseline Reports for Construction’ guidelines, and the International Tunnelling Insurance Guide (ITIG) COP for Risk Management of Tunnel Works.
The understanding between the parties to a contract of the risks at the time of forming the contract is essential. This is so that risks (not just geotechnical risks) are clearly allocated; and financial provisions are made accordingly. All parties then understand the basis for changed conditions should they arise, minimising potential disputes.
Improving contracting and risk management with Geostatistics
This article was written in collaboration with Jacob Grasmick, principal at Emprise Concepts LLC, and outlines a framework for integrating geostatistics into project management to aid better planning, procurement, and construction outcomes in tunnelling projects, and mitigate commercial losses.
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Tunneling projects face challenges due to uncertainties in ground conditions and geotechnical interpretations.
Geostatisticsal analysis is an effective tool that can be used to quantify these uncertainties, and give a more objective method for assessing and managing ground risks throughout the project lifecycle.
This enables clearer communication and more accurate understanding of risks across all stakeholders.
Code of Practice for Risk Management of Tunnels Works (3rd Edition)
This Code of Practice is the latest edition of a Code prepared jointly by the insurance and tunnelling industries. It’s aimed at reducing the frequency and severity of serious incidents resulting in insurance claims, to within sustainable boundaries. The Code has been in use since 2003 by the Insurance industry as a benchmark against which projects can be assessed.
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The 3rd Edition responds to an industry-wide survey that canvassed opinions on the application of the Code to date. It addresses revisions around competence and culture, differentiating between risk management and management of risk, digital modelling, improved language on instrumentation, monitoring and emergency response plans, and the importance of managing high consequence events.
The Code sets out industry best practice for the management of construction risks in underground works. If followed, these should reduce the risk of significant losses (insured and uninsured) across the industry. The Code’s widespread adoption since 2003 has succeeded in reducing incidents and losses to tolerable levels.
The Insurance industry now uses the Code as a benchmark against which projects can be assessed. Insurers may require compliance with the Code as a pre-requisite for their provision of insurance cover for damage to the works during construction.
Planning Health and Safety Risk Management for Underground Works
Client organisations must manage health and safety risks that come with underground project construction. When risks are properly prioritised, tenderers should be able to provide resources with their tenders to construct the works safely, and contribute to the overall success of a project. This guideline was developed to help organisations identify, manage, and track safety risks to meet compliance levels.
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The guideline was developed by the ITA Working Group to help organisations:
- identify hazards and constraints imposed by the design, construction, operation and maintenance, refurbishment and de-commissioning of underground assets
- ensure that identified health and safety risks are either eliminated or managed in a systematic way
- To implement safety assurance measures with regular and thorough audits that demonstrate compliance with pre-defined risk criteria.
- Demonstrate that residual risk levels for underground health and safety are as low as reasonably practicable.
You can watch a presentation by NovoConsult on the guide here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvC3laoOaTw
If you’d like to discuss these guidelines or their application to your project further, please contact us for a chat below any time.
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