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Category: Projects £25-50m Name: David Woodhouse Company: Costain Project: Palace Exchange Retail Development, Enfield Contract: JCT 1998 D&B |
David Woodhouse's complex and demanding scheme has been described as five projects in one location. He had to shoehorn into an existing retail environment 22 shopping units in three distinct clusters, a 40,000 square foot civic facility and a 530-space multistorey car park. It was all linked together with malls and pedestrian bridges, and there were substantial highway and services works too.
The challenges came as thick and fast as the traffic and the pedestrians in this city centre site. They included the early opening of a 120-space temporary car park to sensitive demolition (of buildings where pre-contract site investigations could not be carried out) and party wall issues. David also had to deal with the remediation of 2,600 cubic metres of contaminated gasworks waste, service diversions and programme-critical highway works.
Change was as much a constant as the complexity was. Right from the off, when the site start was put back by 16 months, the stream of major alterations never ceased, put David's way by the client and potential end-users.
Early on, David established a robust change management procedure, and even set up a separate delivery team to manage the changes. The fact that over half the new retail units were open for business in time for the crucial Christmas period is evidence of his success in the face of the large number and high value of changes implemented. Despite the complexity of the programme, with staged possessions, David achieved or improved on all the sectional completion dates.
David showed immense skill in motivating his team and prioritising communication with the many stakeholders in such a large and complicated project. He effectively converted the “not my job” brigade into a “can do, must do” army, and ensured that external agencies never stymied the job.
