Consultancy, 

An Essential Activity in the Rehabilitation Projects

Interview with Mr. Dan Lorberblatt, the representative of the Belgian consortium Transurb-Tuc Rail in Romania

The works that are developing currently on Bucharest - Campina railway section represent, as we already know, only the first steps to the materialization of an important rehabilitation and modernization program of the railway infrastructure in Romania. Considering the amplitude and the complexity of the works, as well as the novelty in point of the machinery used on this purpose, that is extremely performant, the railway personnel, as well as the winning companies within the tenders organized, are facing a real self - overtaking challenge. Wishing "to take the pulse" of the state of works generated by this confrontation with the time and the performance, we have proposed to find out the point of view of one of the persons involved. We have approached, in this respect, Mr. Dan Lorberblatt, the representative of the Belgian consortium Transurb-Tuc Rail in our country, which provides consultancy to the National Railway Company "CFR" SA for the works developed in this period of time. He has Romanian origin (he was born in Galati), lives in Belgium, he is the project team manager within the consortium and, as he has told us, he does not regret at all the decision to come again to work in his native country.

Railway Journal: Mr. Lorberblatt, for the beginning I would like to ask you to make a short historic of the collaboration between your company and CFR SA.
Dan Lorberblatt: We represent a Belgian consortium formed between Transurb and Tuc Rail companies, which has won the tender for the provision of the consultancy in the rehabilitation program of the railway between Bucharest and Brasov, on the pan-European Corridor IV. As you already know, at the international conference in Helsinki in 1997 have been established the transport corridors of European interest, among which a few cross Romanian territory, as it implies the above mentioned railway Corridor IV, then continues through Brasov and reaches up to Constanta. Taking into consideration the importance of the respective routes and knowing the fact that the state of the Romanian railways does not correspond to the current requirements, European Community has decided to grant Romania the support in order to rehabilitate the railway infrastructure on these priority corridors. The first section that was chosen is Bucharest - Brasov. Consequently, in order to finance the rehabilitation works on this railway section was solicited a loan of 200 million Euro from the European Bank for Investments, representing 50% from the overall amount that is necessary. Thus, normally, the Romanian State should make its contribution with other 200 million Euro.
Our company has been hired, as we have already specified, pursuant to winning the tender organized for the establishment of the specialized consultant. The first mission, which was assigned to us, was the work called in English review of design; namely, to study from the technical point of view the technical specifications, project achieved by ISPCF.
It was, as I was saying, a first stage of our mission, which has started at the end of November 1999. We have fulfilled the responsibilities we were in charge with, and we have passed to the next chapter - we have launched the first tender in order to establish the general contractor of the works on Bucharest - Ploiesti railway section. Yet, in the respective documents the works have represented a single lot, fact that meant an inconvenience because, given the fact that the projects included several technical specifications - infrastructure, tracks, catenary, bridge, signaling -, this implies that only one contractor has to have the experience in the above-mentioned fields. The solution would be that several contractors have to associate, being forced, in the same time, to take certain safety measures. Anyway, all these will lead, finally, to substantial additional costs.
Pursuant to a tender, the costs of the work had reached to an amount of almost 200 Euro, fact that means to spend for the works that had to be achieved up to Ploiesti the entire loan granted by EBI. We have considered, naturally, that the amounts are too large and I have advised the beneficiary to split this work on specialized lots. This approach was more appropriate, also from the point of view of the technical specifications drawn up by the contractors. CFR SA has taken into consideration our advice and thus, we had to organize new tenders. Unfortunately, we have lost a year due to these formalities. But…everything goes well when it ends well. Pursuant to the new tender we have reached to use almost the same amount, as it was supposed to be spent within the first tender for the works on a distance up to Ploiesti, to cover the necessary funds up to Campina.
There has occurred an additional task for us: to provide, together with the beneficiary, the coordination between the contractors. However, it is highly important the fact that there have been gained almost 35 kilometers of railway!
Now, for almost a year since the starting off of the works (which took place at the beginning of May 2001), our program is in full development stage, the activity that takes us the most time is the one of leading.
R.J.: How would you appreciate the unfolding of the works up to the present time, at the relationships level, as well as in point of respecting the deadlines?
D.L.: We can say that the situation is satisfactorily enough, with small exceptions (which, naturally, we are trying to remedy), the works are unfolded very well. Presently, there are a few problems with regard to the planning respecting. It is quite normal to experience these kind of problems due to the fact that there has been already wasted a year, and now the bank has imposed a deadline (the last money drawing will be available on September 2003). Such a situation forces us to establish the execution deadlines earlier that the ones stipulated for such works. But this planning, unfortunately, could not be respected with regard to the works stipulated for the current year, due to more or less objective causes. First of all, due to the fact that the beneficiary did not succeed to obtain in time the construction authorization, works starting off was delayed with almost two months (very precious, in the conditions of these short deadlines!). There have also occurred various other inconveniences. The main contractor faced several delays in the provision of the traverses. The excessive heat during the summer time has also created enough problems. During the time, there have also occurred other obstacles, all of them unfavorably influencing the rhythm of the works development. Up to the present time there have been achieved only two thirds of the works stipulated for year 2001. Presently, we are concerned with the integration of these delays in the working programs for years 2002 and 2003, trying to find a modality to optimize the utilization of the track machines that are available for the contractor. Naturally, we are trying hard to reduce the delays, but we will never reach to recover them entirely, in spite of our efforts.
R.J.: Which are the special problems occurred during the unfolding of the works, were there necessary more special studies for Bucharest - Campina railway section?
D.L.: I can say that the main problems that we have encountered are the result of the fact that we are performing works on an existing double railway section, one line being operational. Or, working on one line, there occur inherent risks generated by the fact that the other line is operational. There are aspects related to the workers security during the work and, generally, the safety traffic on the railway - in fact, this is the number one problem, every party involved in the performance of the respective works being aware of. Then, there are also those related to the works stage and the materials availability, which quite often are stuck on the operational line, because they have to give priority to the passengers trains etc.
R.J.: How is practically developed your collaboration with CFR SA?
D.L.: We can say that between our companies there is a permanent (and efficient!) dialogue. CFR SA has created a - a project manager unit - members that we collaborate very well with, we keep in touch permanently, we organize daily meetings; practically, we are in direct contact for eight hours a day. Thus, we can talk about a perfect integration from this point of view.
R.J.: At the arrival in our country of the Belgian company you are representing, you said something about the recruitment of some young personnel in order to create a nucleus of specialists in this field. What can you tell us presently about this project?
D.L.: Our consortium has detached in Romania only a reduced number of Belgian specialists with great experience in the railway field, who are working here, the majority of the personnel developing the activity being Romanian. We have created even a company, named TUC Romania, with the special purpose to hire Romanian engineers. This includes almost 40 employees that are specialized in the railway field. I have to admit most of them are older, because for works of such a complexity, as we are performing here, we need experienced personnel. We have hired several persons that have been retired from work, pursuant to certain restructuring, before the average age of retiring and who are very good specialists. We have hired young personnel, but not so many, we can admit, because we are in need, and I repeat myself, first of all of experienced personnel.
R.J.: Do you have other collaborations in Romania besides the one that you are developing with CNCF "CFR" SA?
D.L.: For the time being we have no other collaborations, because the project developed with CFR SA is a major one and, anyway, we are performing it for the first time in Romania, fact that forces us to highly focus on the achievement of these objectives. The time is passing by and we will be soon enough at the deadline of these works… That will be the moment we will consider finding other projects to involve in. This is extremely important for us because we will be able to put into good use these professional qualities of those who are now part of our just created nucleus of specialists. We will also take advantage of the experience that we have gained working together in order to be able to have a further collaboration.
R.J.: The next stage of works, Campina - Brasov, is of any interest for you? Will you continue the collaboration with CFR SA on this railway section, too?
D.L.: Theoretically, our contract is based on deadlines; if pursuant to the finalization of the works up to Campina, the Romanian State will allocate sufficient funds in order to reach Brasov, we are…candidates for a new collaboration. And I believe we are the most eligible. But everything boils down to the necessary funds allocation.

Silvia Mirea