Driveway Resurfacing: Risk Management Plan

Description of a Situation

Every situation may contain a number of risks and uncertainties that have to be identified at the early stages and managed accordingly. The role of risk management remains to be crucial and cannot be neglected during a process. The current paper aims at comparing and contrasting the nature of risk of a particular situation, developing a risk management plan, and applying several approaches to risk.

The situation is as follows: there is a need to resurface a 2,100-square-foot driveway with new asphalt. To succeed in the chosen activity, it is necessary to research the peculiarities of asphalt resurfacing work and choose the most successful approaches for project success. The identification of sources of uncertainty, particular risks, and opportunities are the major steps that have to be taken while developing a risk management plan in order to create good driveway using new asphalt and overcome the challenges.

Risk Management in Regards to the Nature of Risk

The reasons of why driveway has to be repaired vary considerably. Still, there is a need to resurface driveway with new asphalt, and this process has to be properly planned considering the risks and uncertainties connected with the conditions and things that can happen around.

Asphalt Resurfacing Work Research

Asphalt resurfacing is the process that consists of a number of steps that have to be taken by different people during different periods of time (Mouratidis & Papageorgiou, 2010). Though it is not cheap, there are several ideas on how to save money and achieve the desirable success. Research on resurfacing driveway with new asphalt proves that many people try to overcome possible expenses and choose to deal with some growing cracks by means of patching up the spots (Drew, 2015). In the end, such decision turns out to be more costly. This is why the idea of repair driveway and use new asphalt is one of the possible rational solutions.

A number of points connected with driveway have to be considered while resurfacing:

1. The shape of the surface that has to be redone/improved (there is a 2100-square-foot territory to be repaired);
2. The strength of the already existing construction that has to be repaired (as a rule, it is necessary to analyze the existing cracks to comprehend the places where new driveway has to be improved (MPA, 2009);
3. The material that has to be used while resurfacing (a person, who makes a decision to repair driveway, has to consider personal demands, the size and weight of a car, and the frequency of driving in the area);
4. Time to be completely ready for usage (the material has to be dried and ready for usage after some time passes, and this period has to be mentioned);
5. Color or other considerations that depend on the personal taste and demands (the choice of details play an important role and cannot be neglected to avoid possible frustrations in future).

All these issues create a solid basis for a number of uncertainties that have to be identified to create a good risk management plan and choose the required approaches.

Sources of Uncertainty

At the beginning, it is necessary to identify the sources of uncertainty as it is impossible to promote meaningful assignments of specific probabilities and be sure of the possibility to solve a coming problem (Kerzner, 2009). The main sources of uncertainty in the current situation are the environment, time, organization of work, technologies, and the professionalism of personnel (it depends on whether a person decides to resurface independently or use the services of a special team).

Environment as a source of uncertainty includes such risks like poor weather conditions, unexpected natural disasters, the space for parking that is allowed and hard to calculate without an expert (Amos, 2013), and even people’s attitude to the repairing necessity as it touches upon the air and noises around.

Time is the uncertainty that is closely connected to the weather conditions: if it is sunny, new asphalt can be ready for implementation within a short period of time, if it is rain or snow outside, new asphalt may remain to be wet for a long period of time.

The organization of work depends on a person, still, is characterized by a number of uncertainties: poorly chosen staff, inappropriate deadlines, inabilities to buy the required material, etc.

Technologies cannot be always controlled by people, this is why it is necessary to admit the possibility of breakage and have an additional option to rely on.

Finally, the choice of personnel is a crucial step to be taken. A person, who is going to replace old driveway with new asphalt has to identify a team of workers or take all activities independently. As a rule, a team of professionals has all the necessary stuff, and there is no need to take care of the details just to control the basics. An independent kind of work requires much time and efforts to be spent to achieve the desirable results, but the results will be as they are expected.

Risk Identification

The following risks have to be identified to promote a successful completion of the project under consideration:

1. The necessary equipment cannot arrive in time so that the material chosen can be inappropriate for further use.
2. Weather can get colder, or rain can begin that can postpone the completion of the work plan.
3. Risks of new asphalt being cracked after resurfacing.
4. Old driveway is not removed completely so that some difficulties in resurfacing can take place.
5. A physical condition of a worker or even several workers can worsen so that a rapid exchange of people is necessary.
6. Financial costs may be higher than they are expected due to the current financial and economic crisis of the country (it is hard for a single person to control the possible change of prices all the time).

In general, the nature of risks may be different: environmental (weather may be more or less predicted still cannot be controlled), external (the solutions of all people involved in a project cannot be considered), design and construction (unexpected geotechnical problems may take place), and even some project management problems may take place in case the purposes and scope are poorly identified.

Opportunities

At the same time, the project under analysis has a number of opportunities that can be used by a developer. The opportunities are the favorable outcomes and events that are expected as soon as the project is over (Kerzner, 2009). Regarding the peculiarities of the work done, the reasons of why this work has to be done, and the expected outcome, the following opportunities may be identified:

1. A chance not to cause damage to a car;
2. A newly improved place for parking;
3. A good view of the territory around;
4. An ability to use driveway for different reasons;
5. A possibility to stop a further destruction of the territory.

All these opportunities prove that the chosen project is worth attention, and there is a burning need to use new asphalt and resurface the territory within the shortest possible time because the weather conditions are changing fast, and it is necessary to have enough time with good warm weather to complete the chosen portion of work

Risk Management Approaches

Each risk identification approach mentioned by Kerzner (2009) has to be applied in its own way. For example, the WBS approach that implies the necessity to evaluate each element separately helps to define the potential risks (environmental, external, or technological) and think over the alternatives that can be offered. Within the frames of this approach, it is possible to choose two types of material for new asphalt and try both of them before making a final choice.

The process approach that aims at evaluating the whole processes (like preparation, manufacturing, and further use) helps to clear up the possible outcomes of every solution made in the project. A project developer may try to start doing some preparations independently and hire a team of experts to do the same activities. In several days, it is necessary to compare the results and choose the one that is less risky. The last approach is based on the necessity to isolate the risk factors at the early stage. For example, if the weather is predicted to be rainy or snowy, it is better to postpone the project in order to overcome the challenges or unfavorable outcomes in future.

References

Amos, D. (2013). Wider than necessary: On-street parking in residential areas. Web.

Asphalt applications: Resurfacing of roads and other paved areas using asphalt. (2009). MPA. Web.

Drew, S. (2015). Driveway repair: Should you patch, resurface or replace? Angies List. Web.

Kerzner, H. (2009). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Mouratidis, A. & Papageorgiou, G. (2010). A rational approach for optimization of road upgrading. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 37, 1462-1470.