Implementation of Contract JCT - Essay Example

? Contractual Procedures: Report on the Recommendation for Implementation of Contract JCT SBC . dueIntroduction Contract administration is the process and procedures entailed towards ensuring the successful delivery/ implementation of a civil engineering project. Acting on behalf of the employer, the administrator coordinates all the activities contained within the contract to ensure their successful and practical implementation (Ashworth 2006). Consequently, there are various activities that must be coordinated with the key concerns being cost and time. The project must be delivered within the stipulated time and within the projected budget cost. Such expectations with time require strict operation and ultimate discipline especially with procurement and implementation. Considerations when Accepting a Contractor’s Work Programme When evaluating the possibility of accepting a contractor’s work programme in regard to a construction project, various points must be considered. Ashworth (2006) asserts that the key concerns towards the acceptance of the programme will be considered in the pre-construction conference. During this conference, I as the contract administrator will verify whether the contractor has been able to provide pre-requisite documents as required for the project before issuing the Notice to Proceed. These documents include certificates of insurance, letters of credit as bond for the project cost which should be 40% of the project cost, building permits and contractor’s license. This process ensure that third party liability and accidents surrounding the project are adequately covered thus ensuring the safety of the project. The contractor’s license will give an assurance towards the eligibility of the contractor and give an indication into his experience to carry out the stipulated works (Chappell 2006). Further to the contractor complying with the documentation and security and safety measures, it is important to ensure that the contractor will be able to accomplish the project requirements within the time lines. In this regard, the proposed programme provided by the contractor is to be evaluated to ascertain practicability. The programme should ensure that the construction works are completed in good time to allow for inspection and mitigation where issues could arise (Stoll & Reilly 2006). The programme provided by the contractor in this project does not include road improvement and cabling works. However, this programme runs into the expected time for completion of the entire project. Though the cabling works is a separate contract by another contractor, it is clear that the road improvement and electricity cabling works should come after the construction of the production units and so the contractor should have allowed enough time for such related works. In light of the above, as the Contract Administrator, I will not be able to approve such a programme due to the risk of not being able to deliver the project within the time deadline. Advice to Help Complete the Construction work earlier From the initial contract agreement, the lead contractor is to take charge of the construction of the factory units and the improvement of the service lane as well as the junction with the dual carriageway. The other works of diversion of electrical cabling is to be undertaken by a different contractor but one who must start work after the construction of the factory unit and the service lane. Therefore, to ensure that all the project deliverables are achieved within the deadline of 1st June, the construction of the factory units and the service lane must be completed before then. Consequently for the construction work to be completed by mid May, the employer has three options to pursue: a. The employer may have to bring forward the commencement date so that the actual construction work begin two weeks earlier. This could mean the works beginning by mid December as opposed to 1st January. This is likely to be impossible because of the festivities making it logistically difficult. b. Secondly, the employer might urge the contract on the construction project to increase his capacity and manpower so has to pursue the construction work and improvement of the service lane concurrently. With increased man power and equipment, the contractor will be able commission the work of construction and improvement of the service lane and the junction at the same time without compromising the quality of the work. The main Contractor could also sub-contractor some of the work to a qualified contractor upon agreement with the employer. In this case the other works would be running simultaneously without compromising the quality of work thus meeting the tight schedule. c. Finally, the employer can renegotiate the contract with the view of removing some aspects of the scope which are independent such as separating the works of construction of the factory units with improvement of service lane. One aspect of the work can then be offered to a separate contractor. By doing so, the employer is in charge of all the contractors though this might involve protracted negotiations and run away with time. Therefore, as the contract administrator, I would advise the employer to urge the contractor to sub contractor part of the work to qualified sub contractor who will also be bound by the original contract. Effect of adverse Weather on Contract Administration In order to address the issue of adverse weather in the implementation of a civil engineering and construction project, the contract should provide clauses to deal with time extensions due to adverse weather conditions. With this regard, I will expect the contractor top record daily and monthly weather variations and its impact on the implementation of the project. Prior to the recording, it is expected that the programme presented by the contractor upon the issuance of notice to proceed should be able to take care of any anticipated bad weather. However, some cases of bad/adverse weather are unforeseen. It is the unforeseen adverse weather conditions which can necessitate time extensions (Holland & Lamont 2007). During the course of project implementation, the actual days affected by adverse weather are noted simultaneously with the parameters and components of the construction work that could or was affected by the weather. The administrator will have to ascertain whether the activities were actually affected by the weather conditions. These adverse weather days are considered as full days even if their impact could not last the whole day. The contract administrator must also consider that some aspects of adverse weather now could affect future works such as setting formwork as well as concreting. Upon determining the effective work days affected by the adverse weather during the two week period, the administrator will have to understand whether the works were affected and consequently provide time extension to cover the affected work period. The time extension will be equivalent to actual days affected, especially if the weather was not foreseen. Application of Liquidated Damages Clause where it is not included in the Contract In application of the liquidated damages clause, various factors will have to be considered. Inevitably, the contract administrator must consider whether such a clause exists in the contract. Further, the actually delay period must be considered with the effect of adverse weather being incorporated to allow for time extension. In the case of contract JCT SBC (2011), there is no clause for liquidated damages and so it cannot be implemented. However, the employer should consider seeking for actual damages if they can be quantified. The duration of delay upon determination from the effect of adverse weather conditions is two weeks and not four weeks as evident in the delay by the contractor based on the completion date. According to Williams (2010), the greatest challenge is to determine the actual damages incurred due to the two week delay. Therefore, the owner should sue for damages in terms of the actual loss from the factory operations if it was to be in operation during the period of delay. This would be difficult to implement but can be implemented once the actual damages are determined. However operations such as delays and inconveniences caused on the junction could be very difficult to determine and hence could be dismissed by the courts as unenforceable. Application of Liquidated damages in case of a Provision Having previously determined that the contract was substantially completed four weeks into the deadline time, liquidated damages are applicable based on the time run out which can be determined as actual delay and which is not covered by the extension caused by other factors such as adverse bad weather. In the case of this contractor, it has adequately been justified that the extension on time deadline could be granted based on the two weeks delay caused by bad weather. This leaves an extra two weeks in the completion time (Williams 2010). Based on this understanding, the owner should be able to sue for liquidated damages up to two weeks at the presupposed pre agreed rate of $2,000 per week. On behalf of the owner, I would sue for $4,000 in liquidated damages. References Ashworth, A 2006, Contractual procedures in the construction industry (5th ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Chappell, D 2006, IC05: contract administration : completing the contract and administration forms. London: RIBA Publishing. Holland, G & Lamont, C 2007, Contract administration. Coventry: RICS Books. Stoll, B & Reilly, J 2006, Methodologies for determining construction contract time and evaluating contract time extensions. Clemson, SC: Dept. of Civil Engineering, Clemson University ;. Williams, T 2010, Construction management: emerging trends and technologies. Clifton Park, N.Y.: Delmar/Cengage Learning. Read More