Crossrail is holding a free one-day conference on the 5^th of April 2023 to share the learnings from the completion of the project and the introduction of the Elizabeth line.

Following on from Crossrail’s first Learning Legacy conference in 2017, this hybrid event invites major project professionals to hear Crossrail programme senior leaders share experiences and the lessons they learned through their involvement in the latter phases of the Crossrail programme.

The day will be divided into themed sessions with presentations and Q&A panels, exploring everything from project leadership, to systems integration and bringing the railway into use – as well as how Crossrail’s legacy can be carried forward to improve infrastructure projects both now and in the future.

You can join online, or in person at the IET Savoy Place. In person attendees will receive a copy of a special issue journal produced with the Association for Project Management containing the papers being presented.

Register to attend by visiting the event website https://cvent.me/XVMPB9

The recordings from the event are now available here on the learning legacy website:

Session 1: Project and Programme Management

Session 2: Systems Integration and Design

Session 3: Turning the Vision for Operating the Elizabeth line into Practice

Session 4: Project Leadership and Culture

This event on Knowledge Management in Major Projects reflects both the explicit aspects of the process (most closely associated with lessons learned) and the tacit (essentially the social, human aspects of knowledge sharing).
The event is an opportunity for exploring project knowledge management and includes presentations from some of the early pioneers, including the Rolls Royce Project Academy and NASA, perhaps the greatest exponents of lessons learned.
There’s also a peer assist session help make the event as experiential as possible and showcase knowledge management in practice. This event is open to members of the Major Projects Association only.

BGA Annual Conference

The BGA Annual Conference is an all day event, to be held on the 19 June at the ICE, London.

The event is free to attend, but registration in advance is required via this link.

The full programme can be downloaded here,

The programme will include presentations from young engineers with the BGA’s Cooling Prize winner and the MSc Dissertation Prize winner. The morning’s session also includes talks on mining and minerals in relation to the UK construction industry and a talk on dealing with mine waste. These talks will be followed by a discussion on how to improve the way we communicate controversial geological issues.

The BGA’s AGM will follow a lunch break. The AGM will include a number of presentations as well as the award of a Skempton Medal to David Hartwell.

In the afternoon there will be a talk on the Crossrail legacy which will describe what has been learnt from this major project and how to access this information.

There will also be a talk about the Temporary Works Forum which established a postgraduate course to help train engineers in temporary works design and construction. This links nicely with the following presentation on “special foundations” – a term that has significance in terms of the Party Wall Act.

Presentations in the afternoon will also include talks on chemical and microbiological processes in geotechnical engineering, the role of geophysics in railway and highway construction and a discussion on sustainable infrastructure.

The programme will conclude with brief updates on the activities of the AGS and development of RoGEP.

Alongside the conference programme there is an exhibition with posters from various universities detailing their current research.

The event will conclude with drinks reception

Health and Safety is the number one value at Crossrail. Crossrail have pursued a Target Zero strategy in which three principles are clear: everyone has the right to go home unharmed; all harm is preventable; we have to work together to achieve this. There are six pillars underpinning Target Zero, which structures a performance culture that balances leading and lagging indicators.
The ‘Gateway’ programme has been developed in which the Crossrail contactors can highlight their excellence above the norm and gain credit for this, which is developed into a systematic performance measure. This is part of a core governance culture that drives down through the organisation, and enables a bottom up challenge that drives change.

The talk will set out in detail how this all aligns to drive an ever improving  H&S record, exceeding industry average and exceeding the Olympic Delivery Authority performance.
This event is free to attend and can be booked here.

The presentation sets out to record Crossrail’s experience of GBRs from the client’s perspective. It covers why Crossrail adopted GBRs, where they were adopted and summarises how they were adopted.
A semi quantitative assessment of the performance of the GBRs will then be presented along with an analysis of the types of encounter that gave rise to successful compensation events.
The presentation will close with a subjective view on whether the GBRs were a success and some thoughts on who is best placed to write them.
In addition to this event John Davis has written a technical paper on this subject which can be viewed on the Crossrail Learning Legacy website.

This is a free event,  full details are here – advance booking is not required

Book through Eventbrite here

The Elizabeth line is a new railway for London and the South East, running from Reading and Heathrow in the west, through 42km (26 miles) of new tunnels under central London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. The Elizabeth line is being delivered by Crossrail Limited, with Bechtel as the Project Delivery Partner. The £14.8 billion Crossrail programme is currently Europe’s biggest infrastructure project. Construction began in 2009, and is now more than 90% complete. The service will be run by Transport for London (TfL) through central London from December 2018, when the new railway will be fully integrated with TfL’s existing transport network.

When the Elizabeth line commences services from 2018, Farringdon station will be one of the busiest in the UK, connecting with Thameslink and the London Underground to provide links with outer London, the home counties, the City, Canary Wharf and three of London’s five airports. Two new ticket halls are connected by the longest underground mined platforms on the Crossrail programme. This major transport interchange site has had to fit within a complex infrastructure network up to 25 metres below ground. This presentation will explore some of the challenges in building this major underground facility as well as the features and design that make Farringdon unique.

SPEAKER

Mujahid Khalid | Farringdon Station Crossrail Project Manager

Mujahid, a chartered civil engineer, has worked on major infrastructure projects for the last 20 years. Mujahid started his career designing offshore structures for the North Sea oil and gas industry. He joined Bechtel (an international construction and engineering firm and the Crossrail Project Delivery Partner) 15 years ago and has worked on many Bechtel projects around the globe, including the iconic Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar. For the past four years Mujahid has held various commercial and project management roles on Crossrail cumulating in his current roles as project manager for the near complete Custom House station and Victoria Dock Portal and (the subject of the presentation) Farringdon station.

Crossrail – the Story so Far

A review of the project from conception to completion

With 60 miles of track, 41 stations and an expected 200 million commuters per year, Crossrail is one of Greater London’s infrastructure success stories. Attend this seminar to hear how it happened.

• Why was Crossrail necessary?
• Challenges encountered and solutions found
• Project legacy and transferrable learning for other projects.

Infrarail is the UK’s dedicated showcase for systems, equipment and services for the railway infrastructure market. A key international railway infrastructure exhibition.
This year they are providing a Knowledge Hub section which is the perfect place to promote Crossrail’s Learning Legacy.
The event runs for three days, 1-3 May 2018, and Crossrail will be hosting a stand providing updates on the project and promoting all the learning available via the learning legacy website.

Chris Binns, Chief Engineer for Crossrail, will be providing a key session in the Knowledge Hub on Tuesday 1 May @11.00am providing an update on the Crossrail project –

“Opening The Elizabeth Line – Crossrail Project Update”

Up to 30 April 2018 you can register here for the event, for free.

This lecture – part of a series celebrating 200 years of the Institution of Civil Engineers – will look at how transport has allowed the city to expand and has shaped the pattern of growth. It will also consider what lessons can be learned as city planners and engineers work together to accommodate our growing population.

The ‘cut and cover’ approach to rail tunnels used in the Metropolitan line set the scene for the city’s deep level tube lines. The city’s suburbs have continued to grow, thanks to the expansion of railways and roads, along with the provision of local infrastructure to supply water, energy, drainage and waste. And as Crossrail services are about to go live as the Elizabeth line, this lecture will look at the progress London has made.

Crossrail Technical Papers Competition Winner’s Presentations

This is the last Crossrail Technical Papers Competition presentation event. The format is a little different this year as the finalists will present and the winners will be announced at the end of the presentations.

This year’s competition entries  covered a variety of engineering and geotechnical topics relating to recent Crossrail design and construction works. There are 4  papers to be presented (15mins per presentation):

 Performance Benefits Associated with Elevated Temperature Set Points and Increased Error Deadbands for Room Temperature Controllers

Authors  – Wing Fung and Harry Morgan

Design and Construction of Inclined Escalator Shafts and Stair Adit at Liverpool St and Whitechapel Stations

Authors –  Eleanor Sillerico Mayta ,Jose Suarez Diaz, Sam Ahmad, Eric Marchand, Romain Vivier

Tunnelling Out of a Drift Filled Hollow Under Moorgate

Authors – John Davis, and co-authors(Alfred Staerk, Roser Soler, Nigel Hill

Protection Against Fire for the UK Crossrail Tunnel Structure

Author – Mike King

The event is free to attend and open to all who are interested. Full details can be downloaded here and the poster can be used to promote to your colleagues.

Email  [email protected]  to register your  place

It will mark the end of a very successful run of competitions and all are welcome.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Managing knowledge within a project is a technical role and one that can often feel overlooked alongside the focus on delivery.

To help support the role, this is the first of a series of Meet Ups designed to create a network for project knowledge managers to meet each other, seek advice and share techniques.

The first event will include a series of activities: Introductions: everyone can share who they are and what they do and those that wish may exchange their business cards or contact details; Knowledge seeking: individuals may note down the themes or topics on which they would like to consult the group as a whole or individual members; Knowledge directory: individuals may identify areas of knowledge management in which they have experience and where they might provide advice to others; Peer assist: if we are able to identify two immediate ‘help’ topics from amongst those who are attending, we will invite the group into a peer assist session to help frame the issue and identify immediate next steps or directions; Future sessions: themes and activities for future Meet Ups.

If you a knowledge manager or knowledge lead within a project organization, why not come along to this inaugural Meet Up and let us know what you would like this network to do for you? Major Projects Association Members may register via the MPA website. If you are a registered Major Projects Knowledge Hub member (but not an MPA member) then just e-mail [email protected] for more information or to sign up for the Meet Up.

This is a two day event with contributors from a number of major tunnelling projects in the UK.
Crossrail are taking part in the workshop session on case study: “introducing innovative heavyweight concrete to help minimise noise and vibration on the Crossrail project”
From concept to construction; how high density concrete was used within Crossrail’s C610 tunnelling project.

If you can’t get to the event itself a webinar discussing the project was recorded at the end of September that you can view on the main Learning Legacy website here

This show is an important event for those working within the spectrum of Projects Controls not just from an educational perspective but also in terms of building a network and exploring career opportunities. It brings together practitioners, employers, customers and suppliers together to share knowledge, experience, best practices, career development and software tools. Practitioners & employers (including sponsors) will benefit from a variety of training, technical and managerial presentations from some of the industry’s best experts.
Richard Palcyznski, Crossrail’s Director of Programme Controls, will be presenting on:
“Governance and the art of decision making on Crossrail”.
In Brief:
Crossrail is widely regarded as an exemplar in the world of programme management. But what makes this the case? Richard has been on Crossrail for over 2 years and has a unique insight into how the programme is run, what drives decision making, how the organisation challenges itself and how, with only a year left (at the time of the Expo Conference) to opening the main central section to the general public, Crossrail is positioned to deliver on its promises to London.

Register here if you wish to attend

Full day event based on the Noise Management and assessment of Crossrail. Contributors include Crossrail employees, Contractors, London Boroughs and various acoustic experts. There are a number of presentations and some of these topics and the learning from the Crossrail project will be discussed.
The event has been organised by the Institute of Acoustics in conjunction with Crossrail and looks set to be an interesting and informative day.

As part of Construction Week 2017, this conference launches IEMA’s latest research report on the role sustainability skills are playing in enabling the ‘UK’s golden Age of Infrastructure’. The day includes presentations from industry leaders who are already actively pursuing the opportunities of embedding sustainability across infrastructure projects, consultancy skills, contractor operations and more. Simon Bennett, Head of Learning Legacy at Crossrail, will present in the last session of the day on “Growing the skills base from education to legacy”.
This event is free to attend and can be booked here.

Mujahid Khalid, Farringdon Station Project Manager, and Peter Bimson, Director, Kier Construction will outline learnings from project management and construction on the Crossrail project.

The presentation will be from 15.45 until 16.15 in the Infrastructure Hub at the UK Construction Week 2017 show at the NEC. The UK Construction Week event is free to register to attend here.

Join this lunchtime webinar with speakers from Crossrail, Arup, London Concrete and LKAB Minerals, exploring the challenges of tunnelling on Crossrail.

You can book for the webinar here.

The promotion and delivery of the Crossrail programme has involved extensive communication with directly impacted stakeholders and all those interested in the scheme. Starting with initial engagement during route option selection, through pre-authorisation consultation and the Hybrid Bill process, to the extensive provision for community relations and wider communication during construction. Simon will explain how Crossrail managed this work, ensured people were informed about how the project would affect them, and built and maintained the reputation of the delivery organisation.

View the full webinar here:

Noise was one of the main impacts and challenges during the construction of Crossrail. It was recognised that for Crossrail’s Tier 1 contractors to achieve the necessary levels of performance in noise management, focus could not solely be on controlling or minimising noise levels. Factors such as community engagement, effective planning, management processes, leadership and culture were identified as being critical to successful noise management on sites. A detailed suite of objective performance measures were defined in order to measure contractor’s performance in construction noise management with the aim of driving improved performance towards a defined “world class” level. The full details on this topic are outlined in the learning Legacy paper Managing Construction Noise and Vibration in an Urban Environment
This webinar describes the criteria that were used to measure performance and the benefits that have resulted. The key factors that contributed to success and the key challenges faced during the process will also be covered.
The webinar may be of use to Clients considering developing a means of measuring the construction noise management performance of their principal contractor(s) on a construction project, and for Principal Contractors in turn to manage and measure the construction noise performance of their supply chain.
View the full webinar here:

This webinar presented an overview of the approach taken by Crossrail to measuring the environmental performance of its tier 1 contractors during the civil construction phase of the project. It describes how the process of Environmental Performance Assurance was developed and implemented and used alongside other assurance mechanisms such as audits, site inspections and processes for reporting and investigating environmental incidents. This webinar should be of interest to Clients considering developing a means of measuring the environmental performance of their principal contractor(s) on a construction project, and for Principal Contractors in turn to measure the environmental performance of their supply chain.

Detailed information on all of the environmental elements is on the Crossrail Learning Legacy website and a detailed case study is available on this topic.
The full webinar can be viewed here:

Information and Compliance Management – Control of Documents and Data at Crossrail

Cynthia’s contribution will cover the dissemination of good practice, lessons learned and innovation from the Crossrail construction programme.
Crossrail is the largest infrastructure project in Europe. Costing £14.8billion it will connect 40 stations running from Reading in the west, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east through 42kms of newly construction tunnels underneath central and south-east London.
The Crossrail project will have generated in the region of 15 million pieces of complex documented information. This information is either required by Crossrail directly for the design and construction of the railway, or by the Infrastructure Managers for its future operation and maintenance. So having a well-structured and rigorously controlled information environment is critical in supporting effective contract close-out and
programme handover.Learning Outcomes to be discussed are:
• Importance of information environment in multidisciplinary engineering and
construction projects
• How the Crossrail information strategy facilitates smooth information handback
from contractors.
• How the Crossrail information strategy facilitates smooth information handover to the client
Register for the event for free here

Running 118 km from Reading and Heathrow in the west, through new twin-bore 21 km tunnels under central London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, Crossrail is one of the largest single infrastructure investments ever undertaken in the UK. Delivering Crossrail has presented a number of complex and challenging issues for environmental management, but at the same time the size and scale of the project presented an opportunity to do things differently, to increase environmental performance beyond that which had been achieved on previous major infrastructure projects and thereby set a new standard for the future. This webinar will present an overview of the approach taken by Crossrail to promote a high level of environmental performance through setting objectives and targets, establishing proactive environmental management and incentive processes, and encouraging innovation and best practice. Examples of the outcomes achieved will be provided.

View the full webinar here:

You can book for this free webinar at the ICE website here

The construction of London’s newest railway, which will be known as the Elizabeth line when services begin in 2018, has given archaeologists a unique chance to explore some of the city’s most historically important sites. Since work began in 2009, the project has undertaken one of the most extensive archaeological programmes ever in the UK, with over 10,000 artefacts shining a light on almost every important period of the Capital’s history.

The wide variety of items on display explores 8,000 years of human history, revealing the stories of Londoners ranging from Mesolithic tool makers and inhabitants of Roman Londinium to those affected by the Great Plague of 1665.

These finds were discovered in locations as diverse as suburban Abbey Wood in the south east, through Canary Wharf, across to Liverpool Street, Tottenham Court Road and ending in Westbourne Park and Acton. The finds sit against a backdrop telling the engineering story of the largest infrastructure project currently underway in Europe, with key facts and figures presented throughout.

You might be interested in the Tunnel: The Archaeology of Crossrail exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands until 3 September.

This webinar will describe the identification and management of whole life carbon on Crossrail. It will set out the process of footprinting in the early stages of a project and the problems of creating a meaningful baseline. Crossrail’s whole life carbon model will be presented and examples given as to how carbon reduction has been achieved though the construction and operational stages. There will be a particular focus on the Crossrail construction carbon management tool, which fills an important gap in providing a resource that can provide a more reliable measure of progress towards target reductions and end of construction carbon footprint.
View the full webinar here:

This webinar  presented an overview of the approach taken by Crossrail to managing archaeological sites in the urban environment; drawing on the experiences of the construction of the Broadgate ticket hall.

The full  webinar can be viewed here:

Crossrail Technical Papers Competition Winner’s Presentations

This is an open event where the shortlisted finalists from the annual Crossrail Technical Papers Competition will present their papers – all are welcome. This year’s competition entries  covered a variety of engineering and geotechnical topics relating to recent Crossrail design and construction works. The winning papers to be presented are:

Fire and Water: the London Crossrail experience

Mike King (Highly commended)

Use of Non-Metallic Materials in Ventilation Airways- A Review of Aerodynamic Performance and Material Requirements

Wing Fung, Harry Shone and Allister Ash (Highly Commended)

Effective MEP Design Techniques and Strategy for Large Subsurface Metro Projects

 Jonathan King (Winner)

It is a bookable event and to secure your place

please BOOK HERE

The Crossrail Technical Papers Competition runs annually and receives papers from a range of engineering and technical disciplines. It is open to all organisations currently or previously involved in the project, including designers, contractors, joint ventures and those working for Crossrail Limited.

Crossrail is sharing insight and good practice to benefit the next generation of future projects and those delivering them. This event offers the opportunity to hear from the individuals working on Crossrail, and to speak to them about their experiences.

There will be morning and afternoon ‘marketplace’ sessions and 4 panel sessions concentrating on specific Learning Legacy themes, each separately ticketed.

View or download the programme for the day.

Doors open at 8.30 and the event will run until 1700.  All tickets are free but booking for each session is required.

As this is a free event tea and coffee will be provided but Crossrail cannot provide lunch.  The IET Café will have a pre-packed lunch available for £8.90 or there are numerous other options close by on the Strand.

You can book via Eventbrite through the links below:

• Marketplace Morning Session – 9am until 12.30
• Marketplace Afternoon Session – 13.30 until 5pm
• Project and Programme Management / Information Management panel session – 9am until 10.30
• Health and Safety / Talent and Resources panel session – 11am until 12.30
• Engineering / Innovation panel session 13.30 until 3pm
• Environment / Authorisation and Consents panel session – 3.30 until 5pm

Please share this invitation with anyone who you think would be interested in attending or through your professional social media.

We look forward to welcoming you.

The Crossrail Learning Legacy team

Christina Butterworth, Crossrail’s OH specialist, is taking part in this webinar to impart some of the learning around this topic. The hour-long webinar will explore:

Why go beyond your duty of care?
Hear from HSE as they outline the regulations and duties set out by the UK government related to stress and wellbeing. Beyond regulations, they’ll talk about stress and wellbeing and how the critical human factors impact safety behaviour. Leading psychological wellbeing expert, Professor Sir Cary Cooper will link this back to the known relationship between wellbeing and safety behaviours.

How to create culture change to unlock better safety outcomes? 
The team from Good Day At Work will explore the role of behavioural change, the balance of responsibility and how physical and emotional energy are integral to creating a culture where safety is at the heart of the organisation. Christina Butterworth, Health and Safety Specialist at Crossrail will then present her experience of enhancing health and safety by putting her people first.

The Green Line Recognition Scheme was developed and adopted by Crossrail to incentivise contractors to concentrate on engagement and behaviour. There are no known examples of a similar scheme. This webinar sets out the approach that was taken and the lessons learned in terms of the promotion of positive environmental behaviour in the supply chain.
The full webinar can be viewed here:

Round table Q&A event to discuss Environment and Sustainability skills for infrastructure projects and also includes the opportunity to discusss the feasibility of developing an environment and sustainability passport scheme. Discussion will be held with a number of organisations including contractors, government organisations, other major projects. IEMA have organised in conjunction with Crossrail as part of the Crossrail Learning Legacy.

The event will be happening in London and focusing on measuring and evidencing sustainable outcomes. Audience 90 – 110 supply chain school members attending.  The purpose of this event to increase understanding and improve the supply chain skills relating to evidencing sustainable outcomes.
Crosssrail are to provide a half hour presentation outlining the way data was gathered, the type of data collected, the challenges experienced. Thameslink will focus on Social Investment on Return, Crossrail to provide a broader approach and focus on the Crossrail journey. After the presentations there will be interactive sessions and a summary roundtable Q&A session.

Book your free place on the webinar here

This webinar – the fourth in a series of Crossrail Learning Legacy webinars focused on the Environment Theme, hosted by IEMA and CIRIA – will look at how the project generated of over 7 million tonnes of excavated material- and how 98% was beneficially reused.
Crossrail adopted a client-led approach to the reuse of the material( whereby the destination sites and means of transportation were specified to contractors by Crossrail) together with flexibility to allow some of the individual contracts to make their own arrangements for beneficial reuse as appropriate. this webinar will prese4nt an overview of the Crossrail approach. It will be of use to clients of major infrastructure projects who are looking to adopt a similar approach to the reuse of excavated material; coupled with the lessons learned at the construction site level that were implementing Crossrail’s requirement will be valuable to any project or contractor who is disposing of excavated material.
See the full webinar here:

This event will bring together leading experts who have developed low carbon strategies, studied innovation within the sector and case studies of organisations who have successfully implemented step change to lower carbon emissions.

Mike de Silva will present  a specific example of where this implementation has been considered and offer up the learning from the Crossrail experience.

With planning underway for HS3, this seminar will discuss the future of rail projects in the UK.
It follows the government’s recent announcement on the preferred route for HS2 Phase 2b, running from Crewe to Manchester, and from West Midlands to Leeds to complete the ‘Y network’. The conference takes place in the context of the National Infrastructure Commission’s recent interim report on an East West Rail and the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway and calling for planning on housing, employment and infrastructure.
Delegates will also assess the implications of the recent report on HS2 by the National Audit Office, particularly regarding its concerns on meeting projected timescales.

Simon Bennett Head of Learning Legacy  will present on the following topic:

Long-term planning for major projects: project delivery and learning outcomes for Crossrail

and will outline the Learning Legacy process currently being implemented by the Crossrail project.

Book your free place on the webinar here

This is the third in a series of Crossrail Learning Legacy webinars focused on the Environment Theme, hosted by IEMA and CIRIA. It describes how CEEQUAL and BREEAM were used to benchmark the environmental performance of the project.

Both BREEAM and CEEQUAL have been and are being extensively used on the Crossrail programme in terms of underground train stations ( new works and major refurbishments) and tunnels, portals and shafts respectively.

This webinar will present an introduction to the experiences of using the two methodologies across the design and construction elements of the Crossrail programme; highlighting the collaborative approach adopted to allow effective adoption of the two methodologies as well as highlighting learning points for future adoption on other underground stations/structures.
See the full webinar here:

The scope of Commercial Assurance spans across the Crossrail Programme, with a particular focus on contracts where Crossrail had directly engaged main contractors. Commercial Assurance reviews are focused on assessing, supporting and ultimately assuring that the delivery teams and Tier 1 suppliers working across the Programme are operating to a level of commercial performance that will enable cost and commercial objectives to be met – the principal being the achievement of value for money and predictability.
A programme controls approach was needed to integrate commercial management information to support decision making by the leadership team. A periodic Programme Controls Working Group meeting, combined with commercial data and trend analysis, facilitated a good understanding of commercial performance across each of the programme controls functional areas. This effectively highlighted areas of commercial risk, enabled the targeted deployment of functional specialists to undertake further assurance work, and improvement action plans to be developed.
This webinar outlines how commercial indicators can be used to better profile commercial risk to inform more effective management action and intervention. It will be relevant to any project developing and setting up an approach to measuring commercial performance, or developing initiatives to improve commercial performance during the delivery phase.
See the full wwebinar here:

More information on Crossrail’s Commercial Assurance can be found on the Crossrail Learning Legacy website

Valerie Todd, Talent and Resources Director at Crossrail will be taking part in a panel discussion on The Future of Work: skills, automation and people.
Demographic and technological trends are changing work and working lives and the pace of change will only increase. The panel will explore the changing landscape of work; how businesses and individuals can prepare for a period of disruption and opportunity; and how HR can shape the future of work. Drawing on much of the Learning Legacy material released in September.

Crossrail Project controls lessons learned

This is the second in a series of Crossrail Learning Legacy webinars focused on the Environment Theme, hosted by our partners at ciria and iema. It describes how Crossrail has worked in collaboration to deliver world class noise management.
Crossrail delivers new stations and railway infrastructure into urban and suburban communities across London and into the south-east. The control of noise and vibration during construction and the future operation of the railway has been one of the key challenges faced while delivering the programme
Crossrail has created a bespoke matrix for defining world class noise management as part of supplier performance. This webinar will discuss the development of the matrix and present two case studies from two different contractors demonstrating how it was applied in practice.
Speakers
Andrew Bird, Acoustic Manager at Crossrail
Colin Cobbing, Arup

Watch a copy of the webinar here:

Detailed information on all of the environmental elements is on the environment theme of  the Crossrail Learning Legacy website

A key challenge for Crossrail and its stakeholders was to create a mechanism for assuring that Tier 1 contractors were collectively performing at a level that would enable the programme’s objectives to be met – safely delivering a world-class railway on time, within funding, setting new standards for major project delivery and leaving a legacy of improved supply-chain performance within the UK infrastructure sector. There was a desire to operate a lean client team and also a recognition that Crossrail had to enable the supply-chain to perform if they were to be successful in achieving the programme’s desired outcomes.

Turner & Townsend led the collaborative development and implementation of the Crossrail Performance Assurance Framework, which was based on 6 core areas aligned to corporate objectives: Commercial; Health & Safety; Quality (including technical compliance); Environment; Community Relations; and Social Sustainability. The approach enabled the targeted sharing of knowledge and innovation to support supply-chain capability improvement and drove a 54% increase in performance levels over a 3 year period, and resulted in 14 out of 17 assessed contracts operating over-and-above the requirements of the contract as of August 2015. 8 critical success factors were identified which will be discussed in this webinar.

This topic area is relevant to any project developing supply-chain performance measurement/management models, as well as innovation or knowledge sharing initiatives.

See the full webinar here:

More information on the Crossrail performance assurance model can be found on the Crossrail Learning Legacy website

Roundtable Discussion event held at PwC London.
Topical discussion around the Talent and Resources theme.

This was the first in a series of Crossrail Learning Legacy webinars focused on the Environment Theme, hosted by our partners at ciria and iema. This webinar provides an overview of the Crossrail Learning Legacy programme and provides an introduction to Crossrail’s approach to dealing with the environmental impact of building a large new infrastructure project.
Having set the Learning Legacy programme context this webinar provides an overview of the content of the environmental Learning Legacy theme that is the basis of this series of environmental Crossrail Learning Legacy webinars.

Watch a copy of the webinar here:

From an early stage Crossrail recognised that managing risk was critical to the success of the programme. Crossrail implemented risk management across the organisation with three core objectives:
1. Support the delivery by identifying and managing threats and capturing opportunities;
2. Provide assurance to internal and external stakeholders that the project understands its significant risks and is actively managing them;
3. Improve decision making, planning and prioritisation by improving understanding of uncertainty and risk.

Key to implementing the above was the support of senior management and the authority provided by the Crossrail’s governance through the adoption of an independent sub-committee for the approach to risk management, as well as visibility of performance through a robust set of performance indicators and assurance framework.
This webinar will discuss Crossrail’s approach to risk management and the benefits it brought to the programme.
View the full webinar presentation here:

More information on Crossrail’s risk management can be found on the Crossrail Learning Legacy website.

The Planning function in Crossrail supports the overall delivery and reporting requirements of the business. The planning methodology is detailed in the Planning and Scheduling Handbook (to be shared as part of the learning legacy) and has been fundamental in enabling the development of an integrated delivery schedule and consistent reporting for the programme, supporting effective decision making by senior management.
Having access to current information is key on any programme. Crossrail developed an interactive Planning Page on the intranet such that the Planning reports and data were widely available across the programme.
This webinar aims to discuss Crossrail’s overall approach to planning including: Schedule development and base-lining, Organisation, Schedule Structure, Software, Schedule Risk Analysis, Communication & the Planning Page

The webinar can be viewed here

Further information on the Crossrail planning function can be found on the Learning Legacy website here

Risks around ‘Programme Initiation and Development’ stages of the project from business case to functioning delivery organisation, Rob will base his talk around this.

• early stages of a project which an actuary gets involved with in their everyday work.
• the project financing
• the risk framework set-up and associated costs
• actuaries are also involved in advising long-term institutional investors, so getting a perspective of both project sponsors and investors would be helpful

This webinar provided an overview of how change to the Crossrail Programme Baseline is managed.

The third webinar in the series on Crossrail Programme Controls covered the establishment of the programme baseline of scope, cost and schedule, and the process to control change to the baseline at programme level. It described how contingency budgets were established, delegated and managed, and refers to the control systems

The webinar can be viewed here

Further detail on all the  Programmes Controls can be found on the Crossrail Learning Legacy website

This is the second in a series of Crossrail Learning Legacy webinars focused on Project and Programme Management hosted by our partners at the APM.

As a high profile, highly complex programme with a large number of internal and external stakeholders, Crossrail has diverse user groups for its management information. The reporting hierarchy comprises of a range of reports produced by Crossrail to meet varying stakeholder requirements.

Reporting processes are supported by effective information systems to hold, aggregate and summarise data, as explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is integrated with data in project dashboards which are presented to the programme executive at periodic Project reviews, where those responsible are subject to scrutiny, and are expected to advocate their position.

This webinar aims to demonstrate how this process works and the various elements required for it to be an effective process. Access a recording of the webinar here

More information on Crossrail’s reporting  can be found on the Crossrail Learning Legacy website.

This event will present findings from recent market surveys and academic research in this area which highlight current shortages and gaps in skills. It will explore current industry initiatives, research and trends within the construction skills gap area, and will enable the sharing of ideas and best practice through presentations and discussion relating to these initiatives and trends.

Speakers include Andrew Eldred, Crossrail Head of Employee Relations. Andrew will be speaking on the topic from the perspective of infrastructure.

Full details of the event can be found here.

Industry global Safety and Health Expo taking place over 3 days 21-23 June.

Over the whole three days BOHS are running the Occupational Health Theatre featuring seminars focussing on how to keep employees healthy whilst in work and how to manage any risks in the workplace that are likely to give rise to work-related ill health.

Among the seminars on Thursday 23 June is “Managing Exposure in a Dynamic Environment” which will be presented by Christina Butterworth , Occupational Health and Wellbeing Specialist from Crossrail.

The seminar looks at planning for and maintaining air quality in a tunnelling environment. This needs careful consideration, regular feedback loops and flexibility of systems. The Crossrail project identified the potential exposures and put into place a range of monitoring and control measures. As a result of this work a Best Practice Guide for Air Quality in Tunnelling was developed to inform industry of lessons learnt and ongoing improvement in practice.

Investing in safety and health can have a positive impact on organisations bottom line. By caring for their employees and promoting a healthier and safer workforce,  organisations are future-proofing their business activities and benefiting from a real return on their investment.

At IOSH 2016, the third in a series of three international conferences themed around leadership, you’ll find out how to inspire and influence internal and external stakeholders to integrate safety and health into the fabric of your organisation. And by securing the buy-in of strategic decision-makers in your business and across your supply chain, you’ll engineer enduring benefits in terms of your organisation’s reputation, resilience and results.

Pamela McInroy from Crossrail is one of the expert speakers taking part in the Health, Safety and Diversity interactive roundtable discussion. on day two.

Full details of the conference can be found here

This is a two day conference on 16th-17th June. EVA is a major project management conference for project control,  knowledge, learning and development with opportunities to network with other project professionals.

The development and impact of the new earned value management global standard is just one of the many topics to be covered at this  conference. The rise of the PMO and the transition to Agile will be considered along with the emerging challenges and massive opportunities facing Project Managers today

Richard Palcyznski from Crossrail will be speaking on day 2 on Planning  – Life Lessons

This is the first in a series of Crossrail Learning Legacy webinars (see presentation below) focused on Project and Programme Management, hosted by our partners at the APM.

This webinar aims to provide an overview of the programme controls put in place on the programme.

The Crossrail Programme Controls Team set out to develop a world-class controls function which, through robust reporting and sound programme management protocols, would support the Crossrail programme to deliver the works safely and to time, specification and cost.

The Crossrail programme controls function was built on four key principles. These were to: set the standards; provide integrated information; bring foresight and advice and  provide assurance.

The webinar, presented by Richard Palczynski, will explain the overarching principles for Crossrail’s programme controls and explain the overall structure of the programme controls department including the changing requirements over time. It will cover the key objectives for the programme in accordance with key commercial agreements between the programme sponsors, Crossrail and the industry partners.

Through the delivery of the core base services of planning, cost management, risk management, programme change management and reporting, the ambition has been met, and continues to evolve as Crossrail heads into the final delivery phase. The learning legacy webinar series seeks to share the learning from the processes and systems  with the direct intention of helping others establish an approach that delivers  effective and efficient programme controls. It will touch on the accountabilities and approach to controls and suggest the applicability for future projects and programmes.

One day conference by the Institute of Acoustics on acoustics on large infrastructure projects. There are a number of speakers including Andrew Bird from Crossrail who will speak about vibration control for listed buildings. Full details of the event can be found here

The Commercial Management in Infrastructure Conference examines the huge value that commercial managers bring to large-scale infrastructure projects. Key speakers and leading experts in infrastructure will address core elements of the commercial manager’s role, including risk mitigation, collaborative working, supply chain management, cost planning, dispute avoidance, and the use of BIM software.

Chair of the event will be Martin Buck, Crossrail’s Transition and Strategy Director.

Full details of the event can be found here.

This event invites industry to discuss their role in the newly reformed Construction Leadership Council, the new workstreams and progress towards meeting the targets of Construction 2025.

Speakers include Martin Buck, Crossrail Director of Transition and Strategy. Martin will discuss “supply chains and new business models – sharing learning across sectors”

This event will be of interest  to construction professionals across the construction industry, as well as public sector champions, regulators and academia.

Full details on the event can be found here.

The theme for the  APM Project Management Conference 2016 will explore how the project profession can transform into one recognised as being world class. It will consider how to create a world-class mindset and how that can transform you, your organisation and the profession.

In a competitive, globalised and connected world, the challenge to set new standards of achievement grows exponentially. How do we go beyond good practice, beyond best practice and all the way to world class when delivering change?

Speakers include Richard Palczynski, Crossrail Director of Programme Controls. Richard will explore “What does CONTROL look like on a programme as large as Crossrail and is it really ‘world class’? Is control simply an illusion?”.  He will look at Crossrail’s journey vs. how Crossrail is set up to finish in 2018.

Full details on the event can be found here.

As a major public sector project which can command significant purchasing power, Crossrail was committed to advancing the ethical sourcing of construction products during its construction. A requirement was included in the works information that all contractors must source materials in accordance with the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) BaseCode where possible.

The challenge for Crossrail was that in reality, with the exception of bulk materials such as concrete and reinforcement used in civil engineering, many of the materials and products consumed have little or no information or certification associated with them that provide any assurance of their provenance or conditions under which they have been processed and manufactured. Crossrail therefore committed to investigating this through the collaboration of its Tier 1 contractors and their supply chains.

Following Mike, Professor Jacqui Glass, Loughborough University will provide an overview of the responsible sourcing landscape in the construction sector, which will include an overview of the work of the Action Programme on Responsible Sourcing (APRES) and CIRIA’s current collaborative research.

More details on this topic can be found here.

This is an open event where the shortlisted finalists from the annual Crossrail Technical Papers Competition will present their papers.

The presentations will cover a variety of engineering and geotechnical topics relating to recent Crossrail design and construction works. The Crossrail Technical Papers Competition runs annually and receives papers from a range of engineering and technical disciplines. It is open to all organisations currently or previously involved in the project, including designers, contractors, joint ventures and those working for Crossrail Limited.

Advance booking not required
Please direct any queries to Mike Black, Crossrail
Tel: 020 3229 9278 or e-mail: [email protected]

In July 2014 the Mayor of London released a  supplementary planning guidance (SPG) for The Control of Dust and Emissions during Construction and Demolition which aims to manage emissions of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from construction and demolition activities across major development sites.

The SPG also outlined the new emission standard requirements for the world’s first low emission zone (LEZ) for non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) which came into effect on September 1st 2015.

The role of London boroughs in implementing this guidance is being supported by the Mayors Air Quality Fund in a number of ways; one is through training and dissemination events organised through the London Low Emission Partnership (LLECP).

The first of these events is to be hosted by King’s College London during the afternoon on the 18th March at the Stamford St Lecture Theatre.

Patrick Feehily, Assistant Director for the Environment, GLA, will be giving a keynote address; this will be followed by talks on air quality and planning relating to the construction industry as well as practical sessions relating to the NRMM register, NRMM abatement and the experience of large scale construction projects in minimising emissions from these sources.

Cathy Myatt, Environment Manager, Crossrail will present Crossrail’s experience as a case study.

Crossrail Learning Legacy is the collation and dissemination of good practice, lessons learned and innovation from the Crossrail construction programme aimed at raising the bar in industry and showcasing UK plc.

Over the remaining life of the programme, Crossrail will publish insights and knowledge on a dedicated website and work with industry partners to disseminate these for the benefit of future major projects.

This event is a briefing and opportunity for panel discussion to find out about the Learning Legacy programme and hear some of the Crossrail key lessons learned.

The British Safety Council’s seminar will include a series of presentations on key topics including an update on the changes to the sentencing guidelines in England and Wales.

Steve Hails will be providing learning from the Crossrail programme and a preview of the Learning Legacy prior to its launch on 26th February.

Steve’s talk at the event can be viewed below: