Problem:
The estimated capital cost of around $40 Billion for the construction of this new airport which was master planned to handle 220 million passengers per year was considered to be too high by the Principal. Hence, once the estimated capital cost was checked and reconfirmed, the Principal asked all teams to revisit their part of the master plan to ensure this program can be delivered in a cost-effective manner. However, no specific maximum budget was provided for this program by the Principal.
Solution:
Whilst the aim was to reduce the cost wherever possible, the team was focused on making sure the reduction of the construction cost could be achieved without compromising the program’s key value drivers which included:
- Meeting the required standards and quality;
- Passenger experience; and
- Safety of all involved including passengers, consultants, contractors and maintenance crew.
Hence, an extensive value engineering exercise was initiated to address this problem.
Value Engineering:
The remit of the team that Moein Varaei was a director of included the master plan and design of all landside and airside infrastructure with an estimated construction cost of $10 Billion.
Hence, Moein led an extensive series of infrastructure related value engineering workshops with all multi-national consulting firms that had been engaged to prepare the master plan and design this airport.
Outcome:
As result of these workshops, Moein and his team were able to achieve a $900 million reduction of the construction cost without compromising the key value drivers. The savings were achieved by optimising, streamlining and reducing:
- The length and size of utility tunnels;
- Number of road lanes;
- Number of elevated platforms;
- The vehicular routes, staging areas and parking spaces;
- The amount of cut and fill;
- The amount of double handling of fill material; and
- The sizes and capacities of the utility networks, avoiding any over-design.