Project case study - Project Charter

The A9 Dualling: Luncarty to Pass of Birnam project was delivered with an unprecedented focus on community benefits, innovation, and collaboration.

The project team united to deliver the project to the highest standard, offering best value for money and with maximum opportunity for the development and benefit of local people.

This required a truly collaborative approach from the outset of the project, and it was agreed at the beginning of the construction phase to establish the ethos and foundations on which the project would quite literally be built.

In May 2019, representatives from Balfour Beatty (Contractor), Atkins (Designer), Jacobs UK (Client’s Site Monitoring team), and Transport Scotland (Client), as well as key partners from our supply chain, attended a one-day seminar to discuss the Key Messages for the project and agree a Project Charter.

The day was facilitated by Glyn Harrison of Capital Value and Risk and involved the analysis of each element of project delivery, identifying risks, challenges, and opportunities to form a shared response to each.

These open discussions and the feedback produced were recorded and generated the basis of a report and summary which would become the project charter document. 

Everyone who attended on the day signed up to the Project Charter to show their commitment to the project.

The project team at the charter event
The project team at the charter event

The Project Charter summarised the key objectives of the project, including:

  • Everyone home safe every day – Zero harm and good well-being
  • Deliver on programme, within budget and with minimal disruption
  • Safeguard the environment during the works
  • Deliver on our planned community benefits
  • Demonstrate and celebrate success

Alongside the objectives, a list of team values was also agreed. These included:

  • Mutual respect and trust for one and other
  • Open and honest relationships
  • A common-sense and timely approach to problem solving

These led to a successful delivery of the project with pro-active communications between the various teams which allowed the challenges of completing the project in a global pandemic to be overcome. The collaborative approach between the teams also allowed the project to go above and beyond in their delivery of community benefits through various employment, training and education engagements.