![Hundreds of logistics work files, some in the planning stages, some in progress, had to be transferred, requiring intense cooperation between the old and new teams. At the heart of the transfer activities: ENGAGE's Didier Labarthe (left) and MOMENTUM's Gregory Thibault. (Click to view larger version...)](../../../img/resize-830-90/www/content/com/Lists/Stories/Attachments/3716/cmo_image4.jpg)
Hundreds of logistics work files, some in the planning stages, some in progress, had to be transferred, requiring intense cooperation between the old and new teams. At the heart of the transfer activities: ENGAGE's Didier Labarthe (left) and MOMENTUM's Gregory Thibault.
Anyone walking along the new pedestrian pathway running between the cooling tower zone and the Tritium Building on the ITER platform wouldn't have noticed anything special. There was the same fresh asphalt, the same blue indicator signs, and the same metal protection barriers. Just another unremarkable piece of minor roadwork at ITER.
![Miia Tiainen-Paquaux is the Construction Support Officer for the Construction Management Office. Katsumi Okayama and Yves Belpomo are Head and Deputy Head. More than three dozen people work in the ITER Construction Management Office, which provides transversal support and coordinates logistics for the site's construction activities. (Click to view larger version...)](../../../img/resize-830-90/www/content/com/Lists/Stories/Attachments/3716/team_cmo_2_small.jpg)
Miia Tiainen-Paquaux is the Construction Support Officer for the Construction Management Office. Katsumi Okayama and Yves Belpomo are Head and Deputy Head. More than three dozen people work in the ITER Construction Management Office, which provides transversal support and coordinates logistics for the site's construction activities.
The role of the Construction Management Office at ITER is to provide transversal support and coordinate logistics for the site's construction activities. In 2020, the Office was reorganized and expanded to deal with the increased amount of assembly activity. The new team is led by Katsumi Okayama and it has more than three dozen staff devoted to overseeing activities such as logistics, warehousing, lifting, and scaffolding as well as overall facility management, office planning, and general on-site services such as the cafeteria.
![Not just any stretch of road: this new access way on the ITER platform was finalized through the coordination of the outgoing and incoming teams, a symbol of the larger transfer of platform coordination responsibility from Fusion for Energy to ITER. Pictured are Julien Carriere and Didier Labarthe from ENGAGE (left), and Gregory Thibault and Guillaume Merriaux Mansart from MOMENTUM (right). (Click to view larger version...)](../../../img/resize-830-90/www/content/com/Lists/Stories/Attachments/3716/engage_and_momentum-on-path.jpg)
Not just any stretch of road: this new access way on the ITER platform was finalized through the coordination of the outgoing and incoming teams, a symbol of the larger transfer of platform coordination responsibility from Fusion for Energy to ITER. Pictured are Julien Carriere and Didier Labarthe from ENGAGE (left), and Gregory Thibault and Guillaume Merriaux Mansart from MOMENTUM (right).
The transfer has been illustrative of the transversal coordination puzzles the Construction Management Office routinely needs to solve. Up until now, the logistics works in the common areas on the ITER site were under Fusion for Energy control and the day-to-day management was overseen by its Architect Engineer ENGAGE. Now, the ITER Organization is managing site coordination through its Construction Management-as-Agent MOMENTUM. This meant that hundreds of logistics work files, some in the planning stages, some in progress, had to be transferred or monitored, requiring intense cooperation between the old Fusion for Energy team from ENGAGE and the new ITER team from MOMENTUM. Specifically, the two platform coordinators—ENGAGE's Didier Labarthe and MOMENTUM's Gregory Thibault—have had to get to know each other extremely well. "We talk 10 or 15 times a day and we go to a lot of meetings," explains Gregory. "But it's all been necessary and it's a friendly process because we are taking a best-for-project approach to make sure the day-to-day operations continue smoothly."