PROJECT CASE STUDY
Northwich Carbon
Capture Plant
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Civil infrastructure · Full delivery cycle
Planning and project controls support on a £20M carbon capture facility, maintaining programme integrity through evolving design, civil infrastructure complexity and multi-trade interfaces.
CLIENT
Studley Engineering
PROJECT VALUE
£20M
LOCATION
Northwich, England
SECTOR
Carbon Capture & Storage
CONTRACT
FIDIC
THE CHALLENGE
Keeping a live baseline credible while the design was still moving
This project combined civil infrastructure, process engineering and an evolving main contractor design. The planning challenge was to maintain a baseline credible enough for commercial reporting and client submissions, while remaining responsive to design change without losing logic integrity or critical path credibility.
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The scope involved integrating multiple specialist trades into a master schedule, each with their own procurement lead times, site access dependencies and sequencing requirements. Managing the change register alongside a live programme, while maintaining a credible critical path for stakeholder reporting, was the core planning task throughout the project.
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This support gave the project team a maintained baseline, live change visibility and a consistent reporting structure throughout a delivery phase where the design and scope were moving continuously.
PROJECT FACTS
Value
Type
Location
Client
Project type
Delivery
£20M
CCS Facility
Northwich
Studley Engineering
Civil infrastructure
Remote & site
WHAT WAS DELIVERED
Planning and controls support across the full delivery cycle
PROGRAMME BASELINE
First-principles baseline schedule
Logic-linked baseline programme built from first principles, aligned to the agreed contract dates and structured to support commercial programme management throughout delivery.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Live change control alongside the programme
Maintained a structured change register to track and quantify the programme impact of design changes as the main contractor's requirements evolved, keeping the commercial position visible alongside the live schedule.
MULTI-TRADE INTEGRATION
Subcontractor schedule integration
Integrated subcontractor schedules into the master programme, with procurement schedules developed and maintained to give clear visibility of long-lead items and trade sequencing dependencies.
PHASED PLANNING
Detailed phased plans
Developed phased plans to manage the sequencing of subsequent trades, ensuring smooth integration and clear interface management as the project moved between construction stages.
GOVERNANCE
Planning and programme outputs on this project were issued under NEC-accredited governance.
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PERFORMANCE MONITORING
Earned value analysis
Applied earned value analysis to provide an objective, data-led view of programme performance, giving the project team and client a consistent basis for progress reporting and forecasting.
REPORTING
Stakeholder reporting and submission support
Regular programme submissions and weekly progress reporting tailored to a wide range of project stakeholders, covering programme narratives, timeline visualisations and attendance at client and internal meetings.
WHAT THIS DELIVERED
Accepted baseline maintained through continuous design change
BASELINE CREDIBILITY
01
A logic-linked baseline remained commercially defensible throughout the project despite ongoing scope and design evolution, giving the contractor a reliable reference point for programme reporting and client submissions at every stage.
Commercial exposure visible in real time alongside the live programme
CHANGE CONTROL
02
A maintained change register kept the cumulative programme impact of design changes quantified and traceable throughout delivery, protecting the contractor's commercial position at each reporting cycle
Subcontractor sequences integrated without disruption to the master schedule
MULTI-TRADE INTEGRATION
03
Procurement schedules and phased plans kept trade sequencing visible and coordinated, reducing interface risk and giving the project team clear sight of long-lead dependencies before they became programme issues.
Consistent stakeholder reporting maintained from baseline to completion
REPORTING DISCIPLINE
04
Regular programme submissions, earned value analysis and progress narratives gave both the contractor and client team a consistent, data-led view of project performance throughout a delivery phase where scope was moving continuously.