Case
Samferdselsdepartementet and Implement Consulting Group
Case
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Published
1 August 2023
Implement helped review Norway’s largest transport project – Follobanen – to provide valuable insights for future infrastructure projects, reducing risk and ensuring value for money in future large-scale public projects in Norway.
Follobanen is the longest railway tunnel to date in the Nordic countries and Norway’s largest transport project. It has a total length of 22 km and is designed for trains traveling at speeds of up to 250 km/h with a capacity of 50 trains per hour. It is expected to reduce travel time between Oslo and the town of Ski from 22 to 11 minutes. Follobanen represents a significant improvement for commuters and travellers using the route regularly while also contributing to reducing car traffic between Oslo and Ski.
Follobanen – ensuring future learning
Follobanen was inaugurated on 11 December 2022. However, just two weeks after the opening, Follobanen faced an unforeseen challenge – an operational shutdown. The series of events leading up to this included overheating and fires in the cable joints in Ski Station’s technical building, culminating in a complete halt in services.
In the light of the incident, the Ministry of Transport decided to conduct an external “thorough and independent review of the case, where all relevant aspects of the incident were examined to identify learning points and areas for improvement”. The review aimed not only at understanding what went wrong but also at extracting valuable lessons for the future. The process involved meticulous data collection, interviews and an examination of the project’s complexities.
A report to provide insights for future infrastructure projects on how to reduce risk and ensure value for money in large public projects
The Ministry of Transport assigned the task of conducting a review of the incidents surrounding the Follobanen project to Implement Consulting Group and the law firm Schjødt. The extensive work was completed on 22 June 2023.
The work involved data collection and interviews, analysis and documentation and final report compilation. The complexity of large infrastructure projects such as Follobanen requires good insight into all areas. Close collaboration with the parties involved, including the Ministry of Transport, Bane NOR and the Norwegian Railway Directorate, was important – where, among other things, mapping of topics such as cause explanation, procurement, quality assurance, uncertainty management and other relevant areas was carried out.
There is not one cause. It is a complex set of events that led us to the situation we found ourselves in.
Dag Fredrik Bjørnland, senior partner, Implement Consulting Group
Extensive review of work done
The detailed review process encompassed multiple facets:
- Project design review: We scrutinised the methodologies employed, which revealed significant findings about the project’s planning and execution stages.
- Management strategies: We analysed the crisis management tactics during the shutdown, shedding light on the decision-making processes and response efficiency.
- Bane NOR’s systems and routines: This included an evaluation of both technological and administrative aspects, assessing their effectiveness and adaptability.
- Contractual and procurement strategies: We examined their effectiveness and potential areas of concern to understand their impact on the overall success of the project.
- Stakeholder interviews: The interviews provided invaluable insights, emphasising key themes and perceptions of the project from different perspectives.
The results of the review work are compiled in a final report, which can be found at the bottom of this page.
For us, the purpose of this report was not to find scapegoats. Instead, we wanted to identify valuable learnings for future large-scale public investment projects.
Dag Fredrik Bjørnland, senior partner, Implement Consulting Group
The report Ekstern gjennomgang av driftsstans på Follobanen (External review of operational stoppage of the Follobanen railway line) provides comprehensive information and points to a complex cause of the events.
As mentioned, the aim of the report is to understand and learn for the future – and the final report provides insights into the complexity of the project and identifies areas for improvement.
For a more detailed review, see chapters 3-11 of the report. Below, we highlight the following recommendations:
- Reporting to the Ministry of Transport should be simplified.
- For megaprojects, having a separate reporting mechanism for the corporate management and the board should be considered to ensure learning so that significant risks are reported more clearly and the board can more easily implement measures.
- The project was under high pressure to meet deadlines, yet official guidance stressed the importance of safety, quality and cost. There was a notable lack of alignment of goals and priorities, indicating a mismatch between formal policies and actual management.
- A separate risk assessment specifically aimed at the operational situation should be established.
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