The builders of the Transilvania highway announced they have kick-started works for construction of the first kilometre of the highway in the Savadisla area, some kilometres outside Cluj-Napoca.
According to statements by Drew Slaton, a community relationships manager at Bechtel, they are now working on the road alignment for the area, and all the additional facilities are already installed, as well as two areas for depositing the excavated earth having been contracted. Bechtel estimates that, by the end of the year, work on Section 2 of the Transilvania highway will cover an area of between 5 and 7km. The priority stretch is between the Ciurila and Craiesti areas in Cluj County.
"We will have a maximum seven kilometres under active construction and will continue with secondary activity, archaeological works, and the construction of the second camp for our personnel," the head of Section 2 of the Transilvania Highway Project told Ziarul Financiar.
Bechtel has brought in American methods to improve the work processes on the Transilvania Highway Project.
The methodology entitled "Six Sigma" uses a management technique Bechtel plans to employ to improve the assessment process in employment applications, the acquisition of aggregate materials, maintenance of spare parts stocks, and to improve the ability to react in emergencies. "Six Sigma is one of the methods we believe can make us innovative, without losing our position as world leaders in the fields of engineering and construction. The programme was developed by Americans; my task is to see how I can adjust it to the domestic environment," stated Peter Grimsey, a Bechtel official specialised in methods of improving work processes.
He explained that using this process also facilitates improvements in people's working environment. Grimsey emphasised that by changing the employee bonus system, employee efficiency can be increased by up to 30%. "Six Sigma methodology focuses on the identification of variations in work processes; reducing these variations affords significant gains in terms of security, planning, costs and quality," Grimsey added. At present, half the processes assessed by Six Sigma are related to road alignment.
Given the time constraints on the project, the US company plans to speed up all the process of hiring personnel by October 1. "By early next month, we hope to hire another 100 persons for Section 2 of the highway. We are looking mainly at equipment operators," specified Bogdan Salomia, communication manager at Bechtel. There are currently 298 persons working on this section of the highway, of which 186 are Romanian citizens, and 112 foreign.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
