Using CEEQUAL on the Olympic Park

The CEEQUAL assessment for the Olympic Park is large and multi-faceted. Seventeen work packages are each being assessed for a Whole Project Award (WPA) and these will then be amalgamated into a single WPA score for the infrastructure and public realm works at the Olympic Park.

The projects being assessed include enabling works and permanent civil engineering works for structures, bridges and highways, utilities, landscape and public realm and the car parks for both the Media Centre and the Athletes’ Village.

Because of the complexity of the Olympic Park project and the different organisations involved in each of the projects, much thought went into how to apply CEEQUAL in the most efficient way, and it was decided to implement CEEQUAL slightly differently to how it is usually applied.

For example, it was decided early on that multiple Assessors per package was the best approach. So, instead of having one CEEQUAL Assessor per project we have had up to three Assessors per project: one appointed by the Olympic Delivery Partner to assess the client aspects, one for the design team and one Assessor for the construction contractor. This means that there is a cohort of 22 Assessors on the Olympic Park, working with four CEEQUAL-appointed Verifiers.

In addition to having multiple Assessors, a number of questions have been answered by the client that would normally be answered by another party. For example, many of the construction questions under Section 9.2, Legal and other requirements, were answered by the client because the Olympic Delivery Partner manages the on-site nominated waste contractor.

Due to the size and complex nature of this project, it was decided from the outset that the CEEQUAL assessment spreadsheet would not provide an efficient solution. A web-enabled tool already in use for other purposes on the Olympic program was therefore adapted for use, and this experience has been helpful in the development of CEEQUAL’s own online assessment tool.

The web-enabled tool has the capacity to store a large volume of data, allows collaborative working between users and has been vital for document management and for sharing best practice evidence. It can also generate a number of easy-to-understand reports and has allowed us to monitor progress and identify any weak areas in the assessment clearly and easily, so we could work towards improving them.

The complexities in implementing CEEQUAL for use on the Olympic Park presented particular challenges, but these have been overcome by working collaboratively with CEEQUAL, its Verifiers and the Assessors. We are now also embarking on a feedback process to inform the future development of CEEQUAL. The early enabling works have now been verified and their Whole Project Award scores will be announced soon.

Samantha Connolly, Environmental Impacts Manager for the Olympic Delivery Partner