7 DMRB and GRIP
Guidance on the development of Business Cases - March 2016
7 DMRB and GRIP
Both road and rail currently have their own procedures for taking projects from inception to implementation; these are the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB), and Guide to Railway Investment Projects (GRIP) respectively. Further detail is provided in Table 1 below.
Road – DMRB | Rail – GRIP (Network Rail process) |
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The DMRB procedures require a detailed assessment of schemes, covering their economic, environmental, and safety impacts. DMRB also contains detailed guidance regarding management and related contractual issues.
The stages of DMRB are:
It is also worth noting that the STAG Integration and Accessibility and Social Inclusion criteria are not specifically addressed. With the exception of ongoing maintenance issues, road schemes generally do not have the financial or commercial implications of rail schemes and the DMRB/VfM process generally covers requirements |
The GRIP process is very much focussed on identifying procurement and contracting issues throughout. GRIP was designed to take a project from inception to post-delivery, and so covers all the same elements of the business case process. The stages of GRIP are:
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Furthermore, Table 2 below illustrates how each stage of DMRB/GRIP aligns with the Business Case process:
DMRB | Business Case | GRIP |
---|---|---|
Stage 1 - Preliminary Assessment | Strategic Business Case | |
Stage 1 - Output Definition | ||
Stage 2 - Pre-feasibility | ||
Stage 3a - Option Selection | ||
Stage 2 - Route Option Assessment Stage 3 - Scheme Assessment | Outline Business Case | |
Stage 3b - Option Selection | ||
Stage 4 - Single Option Development | ||
Final Business Case | ||
Stage 5 - Detailed Design | ||
Stage 6 - Construction Test and Commission | ||
Stage 7 - Scheme Hand Back | ||
Stage 8 - Project Close Out |
An IDM decision point should come after each of the SBC, OBC and FBC. Stages 7 and 8 of GRIP take place after the FBC, and will align with the construction and ex-post evaluation stage of a project