With the recent developments surrounding Perth’s Westport as a vibrant backdrop, in2Dredging (i2D) participated in the PIANC APAC conference. The conference was held in Fremantle, Western Australia, from 1 to 3 December 2020. It was a well-planned conference with an excellent mix of face-to-face and virtual attendees. It was also a good opportunity for i2D to reiterate the basics of procuring dredging works.
Dredging Works Procurement: A Tough Nut to Crack
i2D presented an extended abstract entitled “Procurement of Dredging Works”, which has always been a rather tough nut to crack. Our unique paper helps guide a potential procurement team through important fundamental decisions. It also provides key pointers and presents useful tools.
The presentation’s content features the many messages delivered by dredging professionals over the last decades regarding procuring dredging works. We hope that these messages will be shared with as many procurement teams as possible going forward. One of these evergreen messages relates to the need for conducting sufficient soil investigations. The soil types present should inform production estimates and therefore require the use of specific soil and/or rock parameters.
Better Informed Transparent Decisions Required
Furthermore, defining site investigation and conceptual dredging design requires transparent decisions. If the procurement team understands the level of definition to be realised for the dredging works, it can make better informed decisions on what contract type would work best. Going for the standard lump sum contract does not always deliver the best results over a project’s life cycle.
Other topics covered in the presentation are risk and opportunity analysis, site investigations, tender evaluations, and project execution. All these topics were briefly covered from a procuring dredging works perspective.
The presentation delivered by i2D at the PIANC APAC conference finished off with further reading suggestions. Just a bit of interesting reading for the upcoming Christmas break.
