Between 2019 and 2024, 41 billion euros will be mobilized for the revival of investments in drinking water plants and pipe renovation in France. Sade, Cise TP, Sogea Hydraulique, SARC: they have all chosen Kraaft to help them better monitor their pipeline renovation projects. If you also want to get more value out of your work and strengthen the trust with your customer for your water and wastewater projects, this article is made for you.
The drinking water network in France is on average 80 years old. To avoid the numerous leaks, it needs to be renovated. And the government's objective is clear: " halve the duration of the network renewal cycle" by 2024.
The most common technique used in these renovations is open trench pipe replacement. This involves clearing the ground, opening a trench, supporting the trench with shoring, and adding new pipe in parallel with the old system. Once the pipe has been laid, supported by a layer of sand or gravel, the main network can be connected to the secondary networks and the trench backfilled.
In the context of these linear projects, the job site foremen encounter many unforeseen events. A crossing with a gas network, rocky ground that is difficult to dig through, immobilization because of a neighbour's car along the trench, an encounter with a water table. The plans provided upstream are not always up to date, and we don't always know what we're going to run into when we dig, despite the regulations on recollection and marking-staking.
On sites lasting several weeks, or even several months, the ability to explain to the client the imponderables of the work, and to justify delays, often explains the profitability of the project. For their part, the project management and the contracting authority need to be responsive to stoppages at job site to validate additional costs and anticipate delays.
In the field, for an experienced job site manager, it is very difficult to keep track of all the hazards on job site. And site managers simply do not have the time to generate reports on all the extra work that is part of their daily routine.
Kraaft is a mobile application, as easy to use as Whatsapp, that allows the creation of dematerialized job site diaries. The leaders of job site share daily the progress and difficulties they encounter in the field. They send a photo, a video, or a simple voice note from their mobile. The work manager is aware of the problem in real time. He can respond by sharing updated plans and transmit the information directly from Kraaft to the client. This unblocks the job site and allows to move forward to find solutions quickly.
When he finds the time, at the end of the day or at the end of the week, the driver can then create ahazard sheet using the report format dedicated to the project. All photos are geo-located and time-stamped, allowing him to find each hazard on the satellite map of the project. And the customer can validate the unforeseen events as they happen.
Within the framework of fixed price contracts, the design office can find the history of all the contingencies of job site in an Excel table, and better respond to future calls for tender. In the context of contracts with price lists, Kraaft allows to follow the progress of the worksites, which saves time on monthly invoicing and provides supporting documents for additional work.
Beyond the imponderables linked to these buried network sites, Kraaft is a communication tool which allows the work of the construction companies to be valued. A water table is encountered and the network must pass at a depth of 7m? The project manager receives videos of the trench and projects himself into the complexity of the operation, the technicality of which he will communicate to the contracting authority or on social networks.
✅ Ease of use by leaders job site ;
✅ More responsiveness with the customer on breakpoints and additional work;
✅ Appreciated formalism for job site reports and as-built records ;
✅ Explanation of drift and impact on planned rates;
✅ Photo and video feedback for the design office;
✅ Adaptability of the solution to the specificities of the market: 100% customizable form fields and reports ;
✅ Valuing the work and communicating the technical issues of the project;
