ABSTRACT 7th International Symposium on Environmental Concerns in Rights-of-Way Management
TITLE:	CanCommit^©: A Computerized Commitment Database for Pipeline Construction and Operations
AUTHOR(S):	Melissa Pockar - melissa.pockar@alliance-pipeline.com Alliance Pipeline Ltd. Calgary, AB, Canada Paul Anderson - paul.anderson@alliance-pipeline.com Alliance Pipeline Ltd. Calgary, AB, Canada Terry Antoniuk - salmo@cadvision.com Salmo Consulting Inc. Calgary, AB, Canada
Project managers must be aware of commitments made to regulators, landowners, communities and other groups so that due-diligence can be properly implemented during linear facility construction and operation. In the past, commitments have been tracked by memory, or with lists and spreadsheets. These previous approaches may be insufficient where projects are large, complex, or involve large numbers of non-standard commitments. This manuscript describes CanCommit^©, a computerized environmental database developed for the Canadian portion of the Alliance pipeline system. The concepts introduced and structure of CanCommit^© are readily transferable to a variety of projects. CanCommit^© was developed in Microsoft Access^© and was designed to enable project managers and construction staff to document and track generic and location-specific environmental commitments. The documentation process, combined with the database searching and reporting capabilities, allowed conflicting conditions and commitments to be readily identified. More than 6000 records were entered into the database over a three-month period. These included commitments made by Alliance during the regulatory applications, submissions and negotiations phases of the project. Tracking of status and compliance was facilitated through user-friendly database fields, drop-down lists, and help messages. Keyword searches of commitment text and summary reports could be generated by commitment topics, source documents, responsible parties, due dates or geographic locations. The status of individual commitments were tracked and updated by Alliance during the course of construction and reported back to management and field inspectors. Keywords: Due-diligence, environment, commitment tracking, linear construction Ref#: 4-1