Cladding Matters: What’s Project Remediate in NSW all About?
DEFECTIVE: Issue 2021.004
What’s the NSW Government’s plan for fixing the problems of combustible cladding on existing high-risk strata building facades …
Combustible cladding on strata buildings is a serious problem that’s been highlighted in the last few years as I’ve recounted in the article ‘A Combustible Cladding Round-Up’.
In New South Wales, that’s resulted in more than 225 buildings being identified as high-risk and the creation of a Government-funded program called Project Remediate in 2020.
So, what’s Project Remediate all about?
Project Remediate overviewed
Project Remediate is a program for the removal of risky cladding for qualifying high-rise building owners in NSW including multi-use buildings.
It’s designed to help strata buildings with the financial and technical support required in managing the process of redressing high-risk combustible cladding façade that requires remediation.
A project assurance service will be established [via a managing contractor appointed to manage and oversee each individual project] and coordinated through the Office of the NSW Building Commissioner to work with strata buildings to project manage work.
There is no cost to strata buildings and strata owners for the assurance program, although they will have to pay for the façade remediation works.
Project Remediate is a 3-year program.
The project will also assist strata buildings to obtain interest-free loans for the cost of the works. The interest for these loans will be paid by the NSW Government.
The Project Remediate website is here.
And, there’s even a promotional video in delivered soothing tones.
Who’s involved?
The key players in Project Remediate are as follows.
The NSW Department of Fair Trading and Minister for Fair Trading that govern building and strata title buildings.
The Fire Safety & External Wall Cladding Taskforce that was established in 2018 to investigate combustible cladding issues and manage the government’s response.
The Cladding Products Safety Panel which is is an advisory committee for the Commissioner for Fair Trading, Building Commissioner, and the Fire Safety & External Wall Cladding Taskforce and its members include:
Professor Mark Hoffman [Chair]
Dr Marianne Foley, building and construction expert [Deputy Chair]
Mr Stephen Durnford, NSW Department of Customer Service
Mr Allan Harriman OAM, fire safety engineering expert
Mr Robert Marinelli, building surveying and building work certification expert
Mr Stephan Netting, Fire and Rescue NSW
Professor Bijan Samali, fire safety engineering expert
Mr Corey Nugent, Insurance Council of Australia
NSW Public Works Advisory, who is administering the tender processes to appoint the Project Remediate external management organisation, and the Project Remediate finance supplier
Once the tenders are completed later in 2021, there’ll be 2 more players [at least];
A project manager, and
A funder.
The Office of the NSW Building Commissioner will oversee the Project Remediate project manager.
What is Project Remediate doing?
Project Remediate is doing the following things.
1. Project Remediate will liaise with identified strata buildings about their high-risk combustible cladding to get them into the programme.
2. Project Remediate will assess strata building eligibility for Project Remediate.
3. Project Remediate will appoint a management contractor to identified buildings to work with them on high-risk combustible cladding façade remediation.
4. The management contractor for Project Remediate will do [at least] the following things:
a. investigate the strata building to identify the cladding issues,
b. develop a best practice brief for each building, by approved by the Fire Safety & External Wall Cladding Taskforce, the Cladding Products Safety Panel and/or Fire NSW,
c. arrange and manage the scoping and design of the façade remediation works as required by Project Remediate*,
d. arrange Cladding Products Safety Panel, local council and NSW fire approval of the proposed works,
e. arrange and manage the tendering for the façade remediation works as required by Project Remediate,
f. submit the façade remediation works, contract and pricing to the strata building for approval and funding,
g. if approved supervise façade remediation works as required by Project Remediate*, and
h. provide reporting on activities and the works as required by Project Remediate*.
* Details of the specific Project Remediate requirements are at the end of the article.
5. Project Remediate will offer participating strata buildings that approve the façade remediation works and pricing, 10-year interest-free loans.
6. Project Remediate will include all documentation about the strata building’s façade remediation works on the NSW Planning Portal.
Here’s a schematic of the Project Remediate deliver structure.
Participation
It’s not compulsory for identified strata buildings to participate in Project Remediate.
But, to qualify the project services and/or the interest-free loan, a strata building must:
be a Class 2 residential apartment building (Class 2) in NSW. These include multi-use
be confirmed by the Cladding Taskforce and local council to have a high-risk combustible cladding façade that requires remediation.
Registration is open now here.
My initial thoughts about Project Remediate
I’ve reviewed public and other material produced so far by the NSW Cladding Taskforce, the Expert Panel, the Project Remediate team, and NSW Fair Trading so have the following initial thoughts.
I’ll also be writing more about Project Remediate implementation issues and other challenges for strata buildings, committees, and managers when dealing with combustible cladding as things develop.
1. Project Remediate squarely shifts the financial and legal burdens for combustible cladding onto the strata buildings and strata owners who are exposed to risk from that product being on their facades. So, it’s not a case of the government taking over the combustible cladding problem for strata buildings, since it’s not paying for the fix. Rather, it’s the government offering strata buildings a design, project management, and finance package, mostly at the building’s cost so they can say they have done all they can.
2. Project Remediate isn’t a complete solution to a strata building’s cladding risk issues or other related façade issues. That’s because the façade remediation work will be determined by Project Remediate based on its assessment of risks [which may differ to strata owners’] and it will not cover non-combustible cladding façade defect issues that are identified and/or need resolving as part of the works.
3. Not all affected strata buildings will be covered by Project Remediate. So buildings with combustible cladding that have not been identified in the existing list 225 [BTW: the list is not publicly available] cannot participate unless they can persuade the Fire Safety & External Wall Cladding Taskforce to get added.
4. 3 years is a long time for a strata building to wait to have the problem fixed and the risk reduced or eliminated since it’s already been 6 years since the Lacrosse building fire. Plus, because Project Remediate will decide priorities between strata buildings they won’t know their place in the queue. And, it’s very likely the time frames will blow out to more than 3 years.
5. Recovery of the cost of the façade remediation works from any liable parties is left to the strata building via any Home Building Act or other legal avenues available to them and at the strata building’s cost and risk.
6. It’s very likely that Project Remediate and its Project Manager [and associated advisors/contractors] will develop a one size fit all solution as that’s easier when, in fact, each strata building is different and will need to deal with unique building-specific issues.
7. It won’t be cheap. Just a cursory review of the detailed Project Remediate guidelines for the façade remediation works and the number of parties that must be involved makes it clear the pricing for any approved works will be high. Plus, the messages from Project Remediate so far are that they will take a low-risk approach on all issues suggesting more [not less] work on each building and a remove/replace strategy rather than engineered risk reductions.
8. It’s not compulsory. So, strata buildings will need to decide at some point whether they participate or not, and, whether they accept the Project Remediate designed solution and pricing for their façade remediation works.
10. Participation by strata buildings in Project Remediate requires them to comply with and accept the project’s third-party designed solutions, costings, contractors, etc. That’s fine if the strata building finally approves and does the façade remediation works. But, if not, it’s likely to result in government, local council, and NSW fire pressure to do it anyway.
Francesco Andreone
April 30, 2021
* PROJECT REMEDIATE’S DETAILED PROJECT MANAGER OPERATING REQUIREMENTS
Scope of Services
To ensure delivery in accordance with the Program over the 3-year term, KPIs will be developed for key elements of the Program including reporting and Program milestones for design and actual construction.
The Managing Contractor will not carry out any design, building, and superintending work, or be a contracted party to the remediation works.
The Managing Contractor will do all the tasks necessary to achieve the logistics and challenges of the Program (demonstrated on the diagram attached at the end of this document) including to co-ordinate and manage the Program and report to the OBC and the OCs.
The Services of the Managing Contractor under the MCA will include:
Establishment phase
establish an efficient and effective Managing Contractor project team with the appropriate mix of personnel with the expertise, qualifications, and experience to deliver the scope of services, in accordance with the detailed specification and tested through the Tendering processes. (This team will be scalable subject to requirements, noting there will be a process in the MCA to increase and decrease the project team with the OBCs consent);
review and understand the list of buildings and building requirements;
develop a best practice Project Brief for each Project/building, to be reviewed and approved by OBC, the Cladding Products Safety Panel and/or FRNSW;
prepare a proposal document/pack of information and provide that to each Owners Corporations (OC) and liaise with each OC to secure an indication in principle from the relevant OCs as to whether they are willing to participate in the Program;
establish and administer the panels of contractors for investigation and triage of the current cladding, designers, remediation contractors to carry out the remediation work, superintendents, certifiers and a program-wide arrangement for the sustainable disposal of the cladding that has been removed;
procure the design (preferably two options) for the remediation for each building. The remediation design and design warranties (but not the design contracts) will be novated to the Owners Corporation when the Owners Corporation joins Project Remediate;
procure the services of a Façade Engineer as a Principal Designer to coordinate the cladding removal and remediation process. The Managing Contractor is to ensure that of the repository of remediation designs maintained by the Principal Designer is utilised in the design process so as to avoid reinvention of design across Projects;
for each project procure a remediation contractor to provide a lump sum price to undertake the remediation work, submit a proposal and price to the Owners Corporation for approval, procure superintendents to supervise the building work ensuring it is done safely, and procure certifiers to undertake the certification of the works in accordance with the oversight of NSW Fire and Rescue;
procure an arrangement to reuse, recycle and/or dispose sustainably and cost effectively the removed cladding and related materials;
ensure the as-built drawings are uploaded to the NSW Planning Portal. Owners Corporations will have the benefit of statutory warranties for the building work done;
Manage the Works
ensure appropriate approval of the consent authority is in place for the remediation work (e.g. a Fire Safety Order) and obtain confirmation that the Project when completed complies with the order or approval conditions;
manage and deliver the design for the works including a master pattern book that will cover common scenarios and be shared with designers for individual buildings;
secure the designers to warrant the design and intellectual property rights for the benefit of the OC, by way of execution of a Warranty Deed Poll;.
establish panels of providers for use in the projects in accordance with a procurement plan approved by the OBC and using the established panels, prepare RFT documents and go out to tender for the remediation works for each Project;
obtaining tenders from a select panel of remediation contractors established by the Managing Contractor for lump sum prices to carry out the façade rectification building works on the basis of a template amended AS4000 building contract;
advise and support the OC obtaining appropriate Building Contracts with contractors, (noting that participation in the Program by the OC is voluntary);
develop, and ensure compliance, with an occupancy plan for the building works on a live (occupied) site;
procure Superintendent services for the delivery of the remediation works based on a template AS4000 contract;
assist the OC with verifying payment arrangements to ensure all contractual requirements, including legislative, are met;
administer the handover process at the conclusion of each Project including uploading of as-built drawings to the NSW Planning Portal;
ensuring compliance requirements are met, including:
critical stage inspections;
fire safety inspections and certificates;
design compliance with the recommendations of the Cladding Product Safety Panel;
registration of each Design Compliance Declaration and Principal Compliance Declaration;
compliance of thebuildingworkswiththeRegistered Design;
Reporting
complete periodic and closeout reporting and stakeholder communication requirements;
provide dashboard reporting as required including (not limited to):
reportstoOCsofworkscopeandbudgets
consents received to proceed with work
establishment and usage of a panel of suitable qualified designers
establishment and usage of a panel of suitable building practitioners
establishment and usage of a panel of suitable contractors to perform superintendent role
establishment and usage of waste product reuse, recycle and disposal arrangements
approved designs loaded to the NSW Planning Portal
ensure compliance with advice of the CladdingProduct SafetyPanel of preferred products and installations
volume purchasing pricing and expenditure
amount(m2) and cost of cladding materials removed
amount(m2) and cost of cladding replacement materials procured and installed
tender data(open,closed,awarded-including contractor profiles)
possessions of site and completions and management of issues
Fire & Rescue NSW compliance certifications
Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) acknowledgments of remediation o budgeting vs. actual cost information
WHS incidents
workforce profile
percentage(%)completion of each site