Construction starts on time on brewery expansion

The challenge

A new record is set

Extensive work was needed to raise capacity at the brewery in Nigeria by approximately a third to reach almost 4 million hectolitres a year. It included a new brewhouse, packaging building and service block, nearly 500m of pipe bridges, roads, external works and other small buildings. Royal HaskoningDHV was contracted to design all the civil works, procure materials, select contractors, manage construction and provide back office support.
The real challenge was time. Our client wanted the newly-extended brewery to be fully operational just 12 months after the project started. Furthermore, we were working with a limited budget and needed to keep design and construction costs as low as possible, while meeting quality requirements.

Schedule is compressed by running activities in parallel

We prepared a detailed fast track project coordination plan and sought creative ways to further compress the process. This was achieved by running activities in parallel, so while preliminary design was being done in the Netherlands, our office in Nigeria was identifying and shortlisting contractors. Tender documents were drawn up on the basis of the preliminary design and some materials that needed to be imported from Europe were procured at this very early stage.

Within six weeks, we put out tenders and set up contracts for civil works, steel construction, external works foundations, roads and drainage. At the same time, detailed design was under way at our offices in Vietnam, in close co-ordination with the team in Nigeria. Contracts were finalised on the detailed design and the construction design issued in time for construction to start.As a result, we compressed the time from the start of the design process to the start of construction to just 2.5 months. Normally with fast track methods, it would have taken at least four.

The solution

Global, regional and local teams enable best use of expertise and resources for each phase

The preliminary design was done by our global team in the Netherlands who maintained close communication with our client to clarify requirements. Once these were fixed, our teams in Vietnam and Nigeria took over. The team in Vietnam has expertise in the relevant construction methods and tropical conditions, having undertaken many projects across Africa. Our office in Nigeria is familiar with the local market conditions and contractors. The combination of local contractors and strong project management keeps costs low while delivering the required quality and timings.

“Our ability to carry out stages in parallel enabled what is possibly the fastest ever construction start. It required very good coordination between our offices and with our client and relied on our considerable experience in these types of projects,” said Rick van der Kolk, Project Manager. “Equally, we offer a key advantage to our clients through our mix of local knowledge and international expertise.”

The result