Page 209 - Civil Engineering Project Management, Fourth Edition

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Measurement and bills of quantities
and/or materials to be supplied by the nominated sub-contractor. The sum
entered by the engineer is that which he estimates will cover the sub-contractor’s
charges; the actual charge made by the sub-contractor being refunded to the
main contractor. Two additional items are added which tenderers can price.
One consists of a lump sum to cover the general facilities the contractor is to
provide for the sub-contractor; the other, expressed as a percentage of the
prime cost, is to cover all the contractor’s other charges and his profit.
The general facilities as defined in CESMM are deemed to cover – access;
use of scaffolding, hoists, contractor’s messrooms and sanitation; space for
any office and storage the sub-contractor sets up; together with light and
water. If more facilities than this are required, the CESMM requires this to
be expressly stated. Such extra facilities are often required, such as provision
of power, labouring assistance, use of crane, etc., and these have to be defined.
If, however, the sub-contractor supplies materials only, the lump sum is
deemed to include the contractor’s unloading, storing and hoisting of materials
delivered.
One practice to be avoided is to permit a sub-contractor chosen by the con-
tractor to submit his quotation only to the contractor. This could lead to the
sub-contractor including in his quotation for doing some work that is paid for
elsewhere in the contractor’s contract, resulting in double payment to the con-
tractor. A preferable approach is for the engineer to call for quotations from
sub-contractors to be submitted to him.

15.10 The preliminaries bill and method-related items

A preliminaries bill lists items which apply to the contract as a whole, such
as insurance of works, offices for the resident engineer, provision of laboratory,
surveying equipment, transport, telephone and tests on materials or the
works. The units of measurement will be appropriate to the type of item,
lump sum, or per week or month, or per number of tests, etc. Sometimes an
item needs to be split into two parts, such as a lump sum for provision of the
engineer’s site office, with a second item for its maintenance per week or
month. Such items listed by the engineer in the bill must be supported by
descriptions in the specification stating exactly what the contractor is to pro-
vide. See Fig. 15.1 which shows part of the first page of a preliminaries bill
drawn up according to CESMM.

Temporary works

The engineer may list temporary works the contractor has to provide, such
as access roads, a temporary sewage treatment plant and similar. The listing
of such temporary works permits the contractor to put a price to them, which
may be to his advantage. Insurance is costly, so that if a tenderer prices this