Page 238 - Civil Engineering Project Management, Fourth Edition

Civil Engineering Project Management
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adopting different methods for construction than he planned in his programme
and might involve him in more cost. On the other hand, if there are several
buildings, which the contractor has programmed to construct in sequence, and
one of them is delayed by foundation problems, the contractor can divert his
workforce to those not delayed, so there may be no need for an extension of the
contract period.
The resident engineer’s records are vitally important when considering delay
claims. It is reasonable to allow a contractor some costs of disruption when he
has to change unexpectedly from one operation to another, but it is unreason-
able for him to leave his men doing nothing when there is work to get on with.
Also a contractor cannot allege he is delayed by ‘late receipt of engineer’s
drawings or instructions’ when he is in no position to do the work because he
is behind his programme, or his plant is broken down.
With respect to ‘exceptional adverse weather’ as a cause of unavoidable delay,
in the UK this usually means wet weather, including flooding, holding up cru-
cial earthwork constructions, such as embanking and road construction. A con-
tractor normally allows about 10 per cent time for ‘lost time’ due to weather in
the UK, but this depends on the nature of the works to be constructed. It should
be noted that, under ICE conditions, an extension of the contract period on
account of exceptional adverse weather, does not entitle a contractor to extra
payment on account of the delay; though if there are items in the bill of quanti-
ties payable per week or month, such as for the maintenance of the resident
engineer’s offices, these would continue to be payable for the extended contract
period.
The ECC conditions deal with weather by comparing actual weather condi-
tions experienced on site, with the weather data supplied and set out in the
contract. A ‘compensation event’ is then established if the weather conditions
experienced can be shown to have a frequency of less than once in 10 years,
that is, 1 in x years where x is greater than 10. As with all compensation events
under the ECC this may lead to adjustment of both prices and time for
completion.

17.11 Estimating delay costs

The cost which has to be evaluated due to delay to a contractor varies accord-
ing to whether or not the delay justifies an extension of the contract com-
pletion period. If the delay does not justify an extension of the completion
period, then the basic delay costs comprise such matters as standing time, lost
time, and ‘uneconomic working’ for labour and plant. These can occur when
the contractor has to stop work waiting for instructions, re-organize his work
to cope with unforeseen conditions, or having to move labour and plant onto
some other work available or as directed by the engineer. The ‘lost time’ by
men and machines can be identified and costed, on a similar basis to that set
out in Section 17.9.