Commonly, other people besides project team members and construction workers may visit a construction site. These people may include stakeholders of companies involved in the project execution, vendors, bidders, consultants, permitting authorities representatives, banks’ representatives, and investors among others. These people could visit for various reasons that may include: project progress review meetings, presenting proposals and offerings, special testing and inspection requirements, and some other form of involvement. Some visitors might be restricted to visit specific areas or zones of the project, while others will be given access to the entire construction site. But regardless of their type or length of visit, there should be a formal process in place to ensure, as far as practicable, the security of all assets, materials, and equipment belonging to the project. This includes the arrangements to prevent unauthorized access to the site, procedures for checking vehicles entering and exiting the site, and the requirements for security assistance in fire prevention and emergency response.
Using Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) like PMWeb the team responsible for project site security will use the PMIS to manage, monitor, and track the issuance of all those gates passes as well as manage the actual project site entry and exit of visitors, materials, and equipment. PMWeb custom form builder will be used to create a unified form for issuing site security gate passes. The form header will include details on the company and individual requesting the pass as well as the purpose of the visit and the project zones or areas that the visitor is permitted to access. The gate pass should also include the requested visit date and from when to when.
The site security gate pass form will also include two tables, the first is for the visitors’ and driver details while the second is for material or equipment to be delivered or removed from the project site. The visitor’s table will include details of the visitor such as name, contact number, identification document type, reference number, and car details including type, color, and plate number. The material or equipment table will include fields for material or equipment description, unit of measure, the quantity entered the project site and quantity exited the project site.
The attachment tab will be used to upload and attach all supportive documents needed for issuing the site security gate pass such as copies of visitors’ identity documents, and a copy of car registration among others.
A workflow will be assigned to the site security gate pass for which the project team member requesting the pass needs to complete the needed information for the visitors, accompanying visitors, and material or equipment before submitting the pass for review and approval by the project team members responsible for project site security.
PMWeb report writer will be used to create a PDF output form of the site security gate pass which will be emailed to the visitor or to the authorized company’s representative who will be delivering or collecting material or equipment from the project site. The site security gate pass will also include site safety requirements that the visitors need to be made aware of. In addition, it should list details of items that the visitors need to be made aware of such as taking photographs of mobile phones and other devices are allowed among other restrictions.
The same data included in the approved project site security gate pass will be also used to issue a wearable pass to the visitors that would provide a visual indication of who they are, so that project team members can recognize visitors and provide assistance should they need arise. Likewise, wearing a visitor pass would provide a visual queue for protecting sensitive areas that are off limits to visitors. The wearable pass badge holder could have an embedded RIFD chip to allow tracking of the location of the visitors.
The site security gate pass tracking report will provide a real-time register of all issued passes and their status. The report will share the information captured in those passes. It will show measures on the number of passes requested by each company, the number of visitors who have visited the project site along with other measures that could be of interest to the team responsible for project site security.
About the Author
Bassam Samman, PMP, PSP, EVP, GPM is a Senior Project Management Consultant with more than 35-year service record providing project management and control services to over 100 projects with a total value of over US $5 Billion. Those projects included Commercial, Residential, Education and Healthcare Buildings and Infrastructure, Entertainment and Shopping Malls, Oil and Gas Plants and Refineries, and Telecommunication and Information Technology projects. He is thoroughly experienced in complete project management including project management control systems, computerized project control software, claims analysis/prevention, risk analysis/management (contingency planning), design, supervision, training, and business development.
Bassam is a frequent speaker on topics relating to Project Management, Strategic Project Management, and Project Management Personal Skills. Over the past 35 years, he has lectured at more than 350 events and courses at different locations in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and South America. He has written more than 250 articles on project management and project management information systems that were featured in international and regional magazines and newspapers. He is a co-founder of the Project Management Institute- Arabian Gulf Chapter (PMI-AGC) and has served on its board of directors for more than 6 years. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), a certified Planning and Scheduling Professional (PSP), and Earned Value Professional (EVP) from the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) and Green Project Management (GPM).
Bassam holds a Masters in Engineering Administration (Construction Management) with Faculty Commendation, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA, Bachelor in Civil Engineering – Kuwait University, Kuwait and has attended many executive management programs at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA and London Business School, London, UK.