TenBroeke’s experience of delivering depots at Ramsgate, Ashford, Bedford and Northam placed it in a good position to work on the Thameslink Crossrail projects. Working with its trusted partners, the company brought expertise, insight and project controls across project definition, finance, design and construction. At the next level, the project required multi-disciplinary collaboration in a consortium of like-minded businesses to undertake: definition of outcomes, negotiation, legal process, procurement, interface management and procure the finance package.
Standard stuff in any major infrastructure project, so what made this one so successful?  Simple: teamwork and collaboration. At the start, the various players met and discussed what each party could bring to the project. Everyone was aware of the requirement to build depots to look after new fleets and the refurbishment of existing fleets, the joint aim was to agree how best to achieve this objective.
Core principles Recognising that the shared interest in delivering the project and understanding what success looked like for each party. Schedule regular meetings to deal with issues, big and small, and work towards agreements. Avoid using variations as an excuse to extend time or increase costs, instead look at how these changes could be turned into a positive. It’s also important to never lose focus on delivering value for money whilst learning lessons from other industries who do it better. The benefit of collaborative working is the delivery of the defined depot requirement – on specification, on time and on budget.   ‘Collaboration is core to the way we work and we’re finding more and more companies who appreciate and respect this approach. It’s the future and we’re excited by all the projects in which we’re being invited to contribute’ according to Paul Tweedale, managing director, TenBroeke.

Final thoughts TenBroeke Co is a multi-disciplinary independent expert advisers on infrastructure. It nurtures relationships built on cooperation, communication, collaboration and capability, which together help to provide its clients with greater certainty. Over the last few years, the company has successfully delivered on major infrastructure projects including Canary Wharf Crossrail Station in the UK and are currently working in Turkey, Nigeria, Bangladesh and India.