Overview

San Diego Gas and Electric (SDGE) constructed a transmission line to get renewable energy source into the San Diego metropolitan area. The project, “Sunrise Powerlink Project,” harnessed the talents of Burns & McDonnell who was contracted by SDGE to assist in the management of this major program. Both teams needed a project management tool to help with the complex project that is divided into Underground, Overhead and Substation work, with further division by links, sections and segments.

Challenges

The project required coordination of many diverse resources. Key materials were supplied through vendors in India and Dubai, and manufacturing submittals were reviewed electronically through these systems. In addition, collaboration between many contractors, consultants and SDGE staff required immediate access to key documentation. Detailed weekly environmental reporting was also required by the California Public Utilities Commission. In addition, work needed to be managed over large work areas, closely monitoring resources and manpower.

Solution

DRMcNatty & Associates, Inc. (DRMcNatty), worked closely with SDGE and Burns & McDonnell to design, implement and manage the systems used. The system consists of Primavera’s Contract Management (PCM), P6/P6 Web software, DRMcNatty’s Contract Manager Interface (CMI) and a secure FTP site. In addition, Burns & McDonnell’s proprietary tool, “One Touch PM,” will also be utilized for this program. By hosting the systems with DRMcNatty, SDGE enjoyed expedited deployment and implementation, which allowed them to get the benefit of key information quickly.
The primary value of the new reporting system include:

• Timely Report Submission – Environmental Reporting to CPUC is done weekly from over 100 field monitors across the entire project. These weekly reports allowed the client to continue with work that otherwise might have been delayed by late environmental reporting.
• Daily Project Schedule Updates – Collected by 50-100 field personnel every day using CMI, allowed client to update project progress daily.

This information was also used to graphically display progress in One Touch PM within Google Earth. These updates allowed for rapid changes to project work, which kept the complex project on schedule.

• Materiel Management – Raw materiels supplied by the owner but installed by a contractor were managed through these systems and provided a means to review contractor requests for materials and issue releases to a Logistics firm. Damaged material and shortages were managed in these systems also, allowing the contractor to get the materials needed to stay on schedule.
• Intense Collaborative Use – Systems were used by a range of project collaborators: design, engineering, construction management, land acquisition, environmental and many others.
• Turnaround Time – Documents being reviewed benefitted from highly compressedturnaround time using the systems.

Use of project management tools allowed SDGE and Burns & McDonnell to manage and report construction activity daily, respond to Contractor issues and requests in a timely fashion, report to CPUC and other authorities on a regular basis. Lastly, much of the information collected in PCM and P6 was displayed in the OneTouchPM tool, which provided a Google Earth graphical view of the transmission site and progress.

Results

All primary systems used were hosted by DRMcNatty and Associates, Inc., in a secure environment, and allowed collaborators to communicate effectively. At the close of the Sunrise project, all of these systems were migrated to internal systems at SDGE, allowing for continued use with other projects or with other departments.