Maintenance of national roads in the eastern Netherlands

To keep the national roads of the East Netherlands district (ON) in optimal condition, Rijkswaterstaat (RWS), through its division Programs, Projects, and Maintenance (PPO), conducts ongoing preventive and corrective maintenance. This keeps the infrastructure safe, reliable and ready for the future. As the client for basic and major maintenance, PPO-ON oversees the work of contractors on the road network. BAEKEN, through Haskoning, contributes to project management within PPO-ON. As part of the Haskoning team of quality, risk, and planning managers, BAEKEN offers integral advice for the implementation of basic and major maintenance on the road network.

Why was BAEKEN needed?

PPO-ON Roads faces significant challenges in managing schedules. Not only do numerous schedules from contractors need to be handled, but the client also has its own schedules that must be properly coordinated. Haskoning identified an opportunity to improve coordination and streamline process management. As a result, BAEKEN was brought in to strengthen Haskoning’s planning expertise and enhance coordination.

Monitoring contractors’ schedules

Leveraging our planning expertise, we provide advice to the RWS project management team. Our focus is not only on the technical accuracy of the planning, but also on the logic, completeness, and alignment of each step with the internal expectations within the RWS team. We ensure that contractors’ schedules meet the required standards and align with internal expectations.
Ensuring a common language

While planning can be complex, clear communication should never be an obstacle. Within the organization, there was some confusion around project management terminology. We facilitated discussions on terms such as “critical path” and “total float” to ensure everyone shared the same understanding and expectations. By promoting this clarity, we helped foster clear communication across the project control team.
Managing OG schedules

To provide effective feedback to the contractor, it is crucial to maintain sharp coordination within the client team. The client schedule we manage offers transparency into the client team’s activities, ensuring alignment across all efforts and promoting better coordination.
Ensuring integrality risk and quality management

Together with the Haskoning team, we implemented an integrated approach to risk and quality management. We worked on making these aspects visible within the planning process, ensuring that potential risks and quality issues arising from the planning are identified early. By actively visualizing these risks and quality aspects, we provide a solid foundation for effective project control.
Creating individual overviews

Given the detailed nature of the planning, we create individual overviews that convey the key information clearly and concisely to the relevant team members. This ensures the information is accessible and fosters effective collaboration across the teams.
Coordination

With our involvement in multiple projects, we have the opportunity to create an overarching schedule and contribute to the creation of a comprehensive dashboard. Input from the individual schedules is used for more efficient capacity management. By creating an integrated overview and contributing to the dashboard, we provide the program team with a clear, organized perspective.