New Luther King Bridge Crossing Project

To design and construct the New Luther King Bridge Crossing across St. Croix River on or before January 2021 to link Wisconsin and Minnesota and spur interstate commerce.

2 PROJECT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The project goals include: enhancing conservation efforts on the St. Croix River, ease traffic congestion and promote safety,  and  to boost interstate transportation and commerce.The objectives are as follows;

To provide a continuous and unhindered stream flow that guarantees seasonal migration of marine populations designated as endangered by the Federal government

Enhance reliability, ease of travel, connectivity and operations of public transportation in the region.

Decrease pedestrian accidents by 30% annually

Improve freight mobility on the expressway and improve interstate trade needs and travel in the project jurisdiction.

Reduce congestion for faster movement of vehicles.

The project is estimated to cost between $750-800 million until completion. There were issues environmental concerns raised by different conservation groups. However, the concerns were addressed by both the project team and the National Park Service who declared the project to be environmentally compliant.  The major risks include costs and construction where the money allocated may not be enough while the construction can face problems related to the design, changes in work and technology that might translate to delays.

The assumptions made during the planning of the New Luther King Bridge Crossing includes;

Each State will contribute sizeable funds to incur the cost of construction.

There will be no major resistance from the stakeholders.

The National Park Service will provide a positive environmental impact assessment of the project.

State legislators from both Minnesota and Wisconsin will readily support the project and provide necessary regulations to facilitate its successful completion

The Federal Highway Administration will help the project secure federal funding.

The old Stillwater lift bridge will be destroyed and traffic rerouted to St. Croix River Crossing Bridge and New Luther King Bridge Crossing

The major approach used to plan and manage the project is the agile construction management methodology. The project team will be made up of a sponsor, executive sponsor, project manager, and team members. The project sponsors are the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin while the executive sponsors are the commissioner and secretary of transportation of the two states. The project manager will be Mr, Wilkins while the tam will comprise of the contractor, structural engineer and architect of the bridge.

3 PROJECT OVERVIEW

The region near the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin has experienced stagnated economic development for years. The construction and opening of the New St. Croix River Crossing in 2017 has failed to spur rapid urban development in the area as was anticipated (St. Croix fishing n.d).. The New Luther King Bridge Crossing will help accommodate more traffic and ease pressure on the St. Croix River Crossing. The result will be complete decongestion and diversion of vehicle traffic from downtown Stillwater (St.Croixfishing n.d). Unlike the four-lane extradosed bridge between Oak Park Heights in Minnesota and  St.Joseph,in Wisconsin, the new bridge will be bascule and will also have four lanes. Moreover, the New Luther King Bridge does not threaten conservation efforts as was the case with St. Croix River Crossing (Giles 2014).

4 PROJECT SCOPE

4.1 Goals and Objectives

Goals

Objectives

To ease traffic snarl up in downtown Stillwater and increase safety

To boost interstate commerce and transport.

To enhance conservation efforts on St. Croix River basin

For easing traffic, the objectives will be;

Reduce congestion for faster movement of vehicles.

Decrease pedestrian accidents by 30% annually

In terms of  interstate commerce and transport, the objectives are as follows;

Improve freight mobility on the expressway and improve interstate trade needs and travel in the project jurisdiction.

Enhance reliability, ease of travel, connectivity and operations of public transportation in the region.

In regards to conservation initiatives, the main objective of the New Luther King Bridge Crossing will be;

To provide a continuous and unhindered stream flow that guarantees seasonal migration of marine populations designated as endangered by the Federal government.

4.2 Departmental Statements of Work (SOW)

Departmental SOW

Owner/Prime

Due Date/Sequence

Prepare a Request for Proposal document

Minnesota Department of Transport

Before 15th November 2012. Advertisement of bid for tenders, identification and selection of vendors, and ward of tenders to those who will have won a contract.

Prepare a Master of Services agreement

Wisconsin Department of Transport

Before January 2011.

Environmental impact assessment

National Park Service

Not later than July 20th 2011

4.3 Organizational Impacts

Organization

Impact to and Participation of Organization

Minnesota Department of Transport

The New King Luther Bridge Crossing will enable the department meet the state transportation demands which have been historically complicated in regards to St. Croix River.

Wisconsin Department of Transport

The department will experience higher traffic towards and from the cities of Preston, Somerset and River Falls in Wisconsin.

US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration

Improve traffic flow on interstate 94 through the river crossing between Minnesota and Wisconsin

4.4 Project Deliverables

Milestone

Deliverable

1. Feasibility study

Assessing the viability of the project-The Minnesota and Wisconsin Departments of Transport who will conduct the study jointly or hire an independent external consultant for the same.

The departments will conduct public meetings to discuss the scope of the project and also stakeholder engagement to identify and solve emerging issues that may have an effect on it.

Environmental impact assessment-the National Park Service will conduct an evaluation of the project to determine that it will not negatively affect protected species.

2. Procurement process

Awarding of tender- through an elaborate transparent and accountable process, a company that meets the criteria will be given the tender to construct the bridge crossing.

Supply of materials-all materials crucial for the project is supplied to guarantee a scheduled commencement of the project.

Memorandum of understanding-the two departments of transportation of Minnesota and Wisconsin side enter into a memorandum on how to manage the bridge once it has been completed.

3. Design and construction

Acquiring right of way- legal permission is sought on the land in which the bridge is supposed to pass through to avoid issues of trespassing on private property.

Acquiring necessary permits-working on the project will require the management to secure the necessary permits for their workers.

Proposal and approval of technical design- the design proposed by the engineers has to be approved by the project team.

Construction commences-ground breaking ceremony for the project is done on time as planned.

4.5 Deliverables Out of Scope

The realization of benefits is one deliverable that is out of scope for this project. The New Luther King Bridge Crossing has to have a higher return on investment for state governments involved in the project. However, due to the high cost escalation that will be experienced, the returns are likely to zero  Feasibility is another deliverable our of scope. Any changes to scope will have an negative impact on the feasibility of the project and chances of success.

4.6 Project Estimated Costs & Duration

Project Milestone

Date Estimate

Deliverable(s) Included

Confidence Level

Feasibility study

03/07/2011-08/20/2011

Viability of the project@ $150,000

Assessment of environmental impact@$20 million

Medium

High

Procurement process

11/15/2011-04/13/2012

Award of tender

Supply of materials@ $200million

High

Medium

Design and construction

12/03/2015-01/18/2021

Acquiring right of way

Commencement of construction and completion of project @ $500 million

High

Medium

5 PROJECT CONDITIONS

5.1 Project Assumptions

According to the Free Management EBooks (2015, p.12), the scope of a project should outline major assumptions that should be put into consideration by the project team. For the construction of the New Luther King Bridge have the following assumptions;

The old Stillwater lift bridge will be destroyed and traffic rerouted to St. Croix River Crossing Bridge and New Luther King Bridge Crossing.

State legislators from both Minnesota and Wisconsin will readily support the project and provide necessary regulations to facilitate its successful completion.

Each State will contribute sizeable funds to incur the cost of construction.

The National Park Service will provide a positive environmental impact assessment of the project.

There will be no major resistance from the stakeholders.

The Federal Highway Administration will help the project secure federal funding.

5.2 Project Issues

Priority Criteria

1 − High-priority/critical-path issue; requires immediate follow-up and resolution.

2 − Medium-priority issue; requires follow-up before completion of next project milestone.

3 − Low-priority issue; to be resolved prior to project completion.

4 − Closed issue.

#

Date

Priority

Owner

Description

Status & Resolution

1

20/08/2011

High

National Park Service

There were issues that the project will threaten the water quality of the river and may negatively affect protected fish species.

The issue has been resolved and the National Park Service has given the project an excellent environmental rating. The project planners and engineers proposed developing technology systems that will guarantees water quality of the river despite the negative effects that might arise during the construction and use of the bridge. The sponsors of the project pledged to set aside $20 million to fund various conservation projects done by various organizations to ensure the river ecosystem is not harmed.

2

01/15/2019

High

Minnesota and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation

The state governments were concerned about the high cost of the project. The project team estimated it will cost between $750-$800 million to construct the bridge to completion. They argued that the previous St. Croix River Bridge   Crossing cost $672million to build and it was a challenge raising those funds.

The cost issue has also been resolved. It was proposed and accepted that Minnesota and Wisconsin will each contribute 40% of the funding. Federal grants through the Federal Highway Administration will secure 20%. The remaining funds will come from private companies and individual donors. Each state pledged to set up a special trust where tax revenues will be contributed annually to serve as sources of funds for megaprojects in future.

5.3 Project Risks

#

Risk Area

Likelihood

Risk Owner

Project Impact-Mitigation Plan

1

Cost overruns

High

Project sponsor

Cost is one of the major risks in construction projects (Banaitiene & Banaitis 2012, p.439). The possibility of a project incurring more funds than originally anticipated is usually very high particularly for medium and large projects. Delays in construction can cause the cost of project to increase exponentially (Rehacek 2017, p.5348). To ensure that the construction of the New Luther King Bridge Crossing will not be delayed, adequate stakeholder engagement was conducted to ensure that the building begins on schedule. Another cause of increase in the amount allocated to a project is economic recession, inflation that causes the price of materials to go up. To militate against cost overruns, contingency budget of $100 million was set aside. Suppliers were also cautioned against quoting the price of materials higher than that prevailing in the market.

2

Construction risks

High

Contractors/subcontractors

Delays experiencing in construction due to human errors or weather changes can drive up initial costs of a project (Rehacek 2017, p.5348).To solve this problem, the construction tender was given to companies that have demonstrated that they deliver large projects on time with no record of consistent delays in previous undertakings. Work changes can also be the root cause of contractor failing to complete the project as scheduled (Rehacek 2017, p.5349; Banaitiene & Banaitis 2012, p.450). When such changes occur, more labor is required that needs the contractor to hire more people or unrests that may cause the job to stop immediately. As the construction progress, technology may change that requires the contractor to be flexible and adapt it for better efficiency of operational activities. If the project is using outdated technology, it may experience delays in major activities. The design of the project also possess a construction risk.

5.4 Project Constraints

Cost constraints: There is lack of a comprehensive agreement on how the two states will raise cash to fund the 40% cost of the project. The available funds for the project are limited. According to Trojanowska & Dorstatni (2017, p.89), cost constraints are a major challenge in project management. There is the possibility that cost overruns will exceed the initial planning by at least 10%.

Time constraints: The timeline allocated to the project is very little. The project is very complex and due to the issues involved, stakeholder management has the potential of taking more time. The ground breaking ceremony for the project may be delayed pushing completion later than 2021.Due to the environmental concerns raised by conservation organizations; the timeline for the project should be extended.

Political constraints: there are high political stakes in place between the governors of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Both of them are limited by their ambitions which may cause the project to proceed as planned due to lack of enough political will. Each of them is hesitant because the failure of the project may have devastating consequences on their political careers.

6 Project Structure Approach

Project management is a complex endeavor. The reason is that construction companies choose to conduct multiple projects simultaneously (Bilgin et al. 2017, p.357). Therefore, the decisions they make as contractors in one project affects others which they are also involved in executing. The result is dependencies among various projects. For the New Luther King Bridge Crossing, the following are the major dependencies, outcome, resources and finances. Outcome dependency is where the results of one project can impact the status of the other (Bilgin et al. 2017, p.358).  For instance, Mr. Wilkins is undertaken a similar project in Mississippi state where he is also building a project. Therefore, the outcome of that project will guarantee how Mr. Wilkins will execute the New Luther King Bridge Crossing to completion. When projects are affected by the same financial factors, they create some form, of dependency on monetary basis (Bilgin et al., 2017, p.357). Since finances are limited, other construction projects undertaken by Minnesota and Wisconsin Department of Transportation may also negatively impact the completion of New Luther King Bridge Crossing. There is also a resource dependency in the project. Such dependency occurs when specialized equipment by the contractor is being used for multiple projects or a highly skilled member of the project team is also engaged elsewhere (Bilgin et al. 2017, p.357; Trojanowska & Dorstatni 2017, p.91).

There are various approaches to project management. For the construction of the New Luther King Bridge Crossing, agile project management will be implemented. Although agile management is popularly used in the software projects, its effectiveness has led to its adoption in construction (Juricek 2014, p.172). The complexity of construction projects makes it necessary to apply principles of agile management. One of the principles is collaboration between all stakeholders involved in the project (Juricek 2014, p.173). Due to constraints, time boxing attribute of agile management will enable the project team achieve their goals on schedule (Johansson 2012, p.28). To ensure that a project is successful using agile, there is need to manage change and motivate the project team to increase their performance (Johansson 2012, p.28).

7 Project Team Organization Plans

Project Team Role

Project Team Member(s)

Responsibilities

Project sponsor

Governor of Minnesota; Mark Dayton

Governor of Wisconsin; Scott Kevin Walker

The main duties of the sponsor of the project includes (Bisk n.d);

· Communicate the project goals to the relevant external stakeholders.

· Ensure that adequate resources are available for the success of the project

· Making crucial decisions about the project,

· Approving the budget

Executive sponsor

Commissioner Charles Zelle of Minnesota Department of transportation

Secretary Dave Ross, Wisconsin Department of Transportation

Project Manager

Mr. Tom Wilkins

According to Bisk (n.d), the following are the responsibilities of the project manager:

· Assign roles to various team members.

· Lead and manage the team for successful completion of the project.

· Regularly update the senior management on the progress of the project.

· Identify and implement a project management methodology to be used.

· Develop a project plan,

· Establish a project schedule.

· Manage the deliverables of a project

Project Team

Contractor: Mr. Tom Johansen or Johansen Construction

Structural/civil engineer: Engineer Peter Morris of Kaplan & Associates

Designer/architect: Mary Johnson

According to the Health and Safety Executive(2015), a contractor has the following duties:

· Provide appropriate supervision to workers

· Coordinate with other contractors where applicable.

· Take measures to prevent unauthorized access of the work site.

· Ensure the health and safety of all workers under their control.

For structural engineers, their roles are;

· Selecting appropriate construction materials.

· Managing projects.

· Investigating structures for seismic stability and manageable load stress.

· Providing technical advice to the project manager

Inspecting work undertaken by contractors.

8 PROJECT REFERENCES

Banaitiene, N., & Banaitis, A.(2012). Risk Management in Construction Projects. http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/51460

Bilgin, G,., Eken, G., Ozyurt, B., Dirkem, I., Birgonul, M.T., & Ozorhon, B.(2017). Handling project dependencies in portfolio management. Procedia Computer Science 121: 356–363 Doi 10.1016/j.procs.2017.11.048

Bisk (n.d).Project Management: Team roles and responsibilities. Available at https://www.villanovau.com/resources/project-management/project-team-roles-and-responsibilities/#.WyWyplUzbIU

Free Management EBooks(2015).Project Scope. Available at http://www.free-management-ebooks.com/dldebk-pdf/fme-project-scope.pdf

Giles, K.(2014). Crossing and protecting a gem of St. Croix river. Available at http://www.startribune.com/crossing-and-protecting-a-gem-of-a-st-croix-river/266139521/

Health & Safety Executive (2015). Contactor roles and responsibilities. Available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/2015/contractors.htm

Johansson, M.Y.(2012). Agile project management in the construction industry - An inquiry of the opportunities in construction projects. Available at https://www.kth.se/polopoly_fs/1.339912!/Menu/general/column-content/attachment/Mattias_no148.pdf

Juricek, J.(2014). Agile project management principles. Software Engineering

2(2): 172-176. DOI: 10.7763/LNSE.2014.V2.117

Rehacek, P.(2017). Risk management in Construction projects. Journal of Engineering & Applied Sciences, 12(20):5347-5352

St, Croix Fishing (n.d). St. Croix River Bridge Crossing. Available at http://www.stcroixriverfishing.com/StillwaterBridgeCrossing.html

Trojanowska, J., & Dostatni, E.(2017). Application of theory of constraints for project management. Management and Production Engineering Review,8(3): 87-95. DOI: 10.1515/mper-2017-0031

9 APPROVALS

Prepared by   __________________________________

Project Manager

Approved by  __________________________________

Project Sponsor

__________________________________

                        Executive Sponsor

__________________________________

Client Sponsor

10 APPENDICES

10.1 Document Guidelines

10.2 Project Charter Document Sections Omitted