Throughout the 21-month construction period from April 2015 to January 2017, weekly safety checks were also carried out. Safety coordinators and safety supervisors conducted weekly site walks with all managements including Singapore Power Limited(SPL) staff and safety. SCK also conducted daily housekeeping site walks with all contractor supervisors to ensure sites and workplaces are neat and tidy. Yet, managing the efficiency of the project was one of the biggest challenges faced by the team. Special considerations were also taken to ensure daily progress is made with the project, and cash flow was also always on the back of the project manager’s mind to ensure the smooth construction.

Environmental and safety concerns aside, SCK adopted a structured approach to undertake the demanding assignment. Clear communication was crucial and it was also the project manager’s responsibility to break down the steps to implementation and making them accessible on different levels, from the project management layer to the core and individual teams, namely the architecture, structure, M&E, interior design, and façade teams. The team also had to be highly adaptable to change and be shrewd at managing limited resources, prioritize goals, monitor performance and control results of each stage of the project. Such cohesive collaboration was particularly crucial when SCK faced challenges such as problems between existing structures and new structures. In these cases, quick and immediate attention to issues was always needed, along with open communication. 

In a mere two months, SCK finished the construction of a sub-station and by July 2016 completed the Data Centre, Warehouse on level 3, MDF room and High voltage/Low voltage simulator.

From rigorous training to quality checks and quality assurance processes, we had a solid system in place to manage the challenges and deliver results.