How the Southern Programme Alliance created a single point of truth with Aphex

The project

The Southern Program Alliance (SPA) is one of five Alliances designed to complete work packages across Melbourne’s Level Crossing Removal Program. This massive project removes 110 level crossings, upgrades new stations, duplicates tracks, and adds new train stabling yards.

The SPA includes ACCIONA, WSP, Metro Trains Melbourne, and Level Crossing Removal Project.

Stuart Smith is the Project Manager of Additional Work Package 6 (AWP6—Parkdale), a work package that consists of removing two level crossings at Parkers and Warrigal Roads, constructing a new elevated station at Parkdale, and delivering a community open space the size of two Melbourne Cricket Grounds.

We chatted to Stuart to learn more about the delivery of the project, starting with the constraints of working on an active railway line.

Working with tight deadlines

On complex rail jobs, most site work happens during planned track closures. This means tight deadlines for work to be completed. After all, the trains need to start running again, regardless of any issues that arise during construction.

This puts a premium on surfacing issues as quickly as possible, so that they can be resolved without delaying the project.

The problem for the AWP6—Parkdale team? The usual way of managing short-range planning — wrangling disconnected Excel and Project files — wasn’t going to deliver results.

As Senior Project Planner Ethan Ebrahimi tells us, updates from engineers can come in many different forms. This puts a massive administrative burden on the team, and is too often a messy and time-consuming process.

A single source of truth

To find a better way to manage short-range planning and surface issues quickly, the team turned to Aphex.

Ideally the team wanted a way to operate on what Stuart describes as “a single source of truth for all works planned by the delivery team in the short-term.”

With this in place, the team would be able “to see and easily link tasks that are planned, in progress, and delayed back to the overall master schedule in P6.”

With Aphex, the team found a tool that was able to do just that. Site teams across the project were able to see exactly what work was happening in real time. But as the Aphex team discovered during onboarding, there was still more value to be unlocked.

An immediate view of work on site

Map data is a critical part of modern project delivery. But too often, this data is stuck in enterprise tools that don’t easily integrate with the software used on site.

This means maps and work areas are cross-referenced to plans manually, and are often communicated visually using tools like Powerpoint. This requires engineers to cut and paste data from one tool to another — a tedious and inefficient process.

Stuart and the team at AWP6—Parkdale were keen to find a better solution. Using Aphex, they were able to directly integrate their GIS data, so that the latest maps and work areas could be linked directly to specific tasks.

The team used Aphex’s Propeller integration to add drone flyover data, allowing for more accurate basemaps. Stuart explains that this gave the team “an immediate way to see easily what work is happening on site.”

“The introduction of ArcGIS layers into our maps allowed me to understand better exactly where each task was happening, and any overlap with other work happening at the same time.”
_{Naomi Semercioglu, Senior Project Engineer}

Successful project delivery

Today, the team has a single place where all planning and mapping of work areas can be done. This allows the team to work with the most up-to-date information.

The AWP6—Parkdale team has eliminated the need to double-handle tasks for further breakdown, reducing inefficiencies and potential errors.

As a result, the project shifted to a situation where planners, the delivery team, and management are all on the same page regarding the work status and progress.