Page 218 - Civil Engineering Project Management, Fourth Edition

Civil Engineering Project Management
198
are done according to some computer package which is unfamiliar to the
resident engineer, or if no sketches are provided by the contractor to explain
how his quantity has been calculated.
Some items will need measurement in the field, such as trench depths for
pipelines, excavation and mass concrete to foundations, etc. This may be done
by the resident engineer’s inspector who agrees the measurement with the
appropriate foreman, a written advice note being sent immediately to the
contractor giving the agreed figures. Sometimes joint measurement is arranged.
Other quantities can be taken from drawings if no variation has occurred.
Where an item of work is only partly done, a rough estimate of the proportion
done should be agreed with the contractor. Sometimes all but a minor aspect
of an item is completed, for example, final painting of valves in a valve cham-
ber. It is simpler to certify the item in full rather than making some trivial
reduction, making a note to remind the contractor if he fails to complete
the painting.
If work has been done so badly that it cannot be accepted, no payment
should be certified for it. If the contractor has agreed to do some remedial work
that will make it satisfactory, some partial payment can be made. All depends
on the circumstances. With a reputable contractor and a responsible agent
there is no reason to assume that verbal promises will not be carried out. With
good contractors most agreements are verbal anyway, and any paperwork is
only for the purposes of record.
Some agents leave the contractor’s quantity surveyors to prepare the con-
tractor’s accounts. When the quantity surveyors are approached and asked
not to repeat in every account items of claim previously struck out as being
invalid, they may reply they have no authority to remove an item once it has
been put into an account. Continued practice of this kind means that, as the
measurement gets larger, the resident engineer may have to make an increas-
ing number of corrections to items, page totals, and bill summaries. If the engin-
eer is unable to get the practice altered – if necessary by direct approach to the
contractor’s senior personnel – it at least eases the problem to insist, from the
beginning, that all extras, added items and claims are billed on a separate
sheet, or added at the end of each bill.

16.3 Payment for extra work, dayworks and claims

When extra work has been ordered then, if any of such extra work has been
done by the contractor, there should be some payment for it in the next
interim payment certificate even if the rates for such extra work have not been
agreed. The reason for this is that the ICE conditions provide that work done
shall be measured monthly and paid for within 28 days of the contractor sub-
mitting his account for same. Any dispute about the exact rate or amount for
some extra should not therefore delay payment of what the engineer con-
siders a reasonable amount. Otherwise the contractor could claim he was not