Kluwer Construction Blog

Question:
I am a consultant and the appointed “Engineer” working on a harbour construction project in Eastern Asia, using the FIDIC Yellow (Design & Build) Book. Some confusion has arisen over the interpretation of the following clauses:

1. Clause 13.5 Provisional sum: this Clause contains two sub-clauses 13.5(a) and 13.5(b). We (Consultant) think that 13.5(a) applies to works which are undertaken by the main Contractor and that 13.5(b) applies to works which are undertaken by third party sub-contractors or suppliers.

The Contractor disputes our interpretation and says that 13.5(a) applies to work (any kind of works executed by anybody (main contractor or sub contractor)) and 13.5(b) applies [...]

I am a contractor working on a wastewater project in Eastern Europe, using the FIDIC Yellow Book –Design & Build. Vol.3 of our contract contains the following clause:

“Tests on Completion

The first 30 days shall be a monitoring period during which the Contractor sets up the operation of the plant and conducts his own water quality tests to confirm that the final effluent consent has been met. At the end of this period the Contractor shall notify the Engineer that the plant is complete and meeting the Process Guarantee which then shall be met by a further 30 consecutive days before Taking Over can take place.”

We have met the final 30 consec [...]

Question:
I am a project manager for the employer on a power plant project based in Europe. We have been on quite good terms with the contractor up until now. Last week the contractor sent us a claim for 12 weeks’ delay to the programme and for compensation costs (we are using the FIDIC Yellow Book (Plant and Design Build) 1999 form and English governing law). They are saying that dealing with contamination in the ground discovered in the last few weeks will cause a delay. We had a couple of site meetings with the contractor and sub-contractor about the programme and the potential delays, prior to the contractor sending the claim. I have two issues with the claim: firstly, we do not believe [...]

Our Ask the Expert function will be available for you to use shortly. In the meantime, here is a question which was recently posed to us, that we thought you might find interesting.

Question: I’m a contract manager for the prime contractor on an African project for which we are using a relatively unamended FIDIC Red Book 1999 form. We’ve recently been plagued by weather which I and my colleagues think is completely out of the ordinary and which has delayed our work on site to a degree. In the last couple of project meetings I mentioned that the rain is causing us some problems and that was recorded in the minutes. I also made sure that in our last progress report I put in a reference to the [...]