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Delay Claim for Seasonal Variance

15 replies [Last post]
Tue, 2006-10-31 21:01
Brennan Westworth
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Hi Planning Planeteers,

I have a bit of a problem I hope you can help me with.

I am preparing a delay claim for a project.

Basically the client has delayed the project so that our peak has been pushed back from winter to the middle of summer.

maximum winter temperatures are a comfortable 15-20 deg C where as temperatures get at the height of summer are a sweltering 35-45 deg C.

Our argument is that the work will be less efficient, ie require more manhours to execute the same work due to the added stress on workers caused by the hot working conditions.

Does anyone have experience in preparation of this type of claim or could offer any advice on how to quantify the inefficiency?

cheers,
Brennan
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Replies

Wed, 2007-01-10 00:49
#1
Brennan Westworth
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The seasonal variance formed part of a claim for delay (along with prolongation, material price rises etc). The client accepted the argument we put forward and considered it in the final wash up of the claim.

As you know most large claims end up in an offer, counter offer and finally a handshake after a few beer over dinner with senior execs.

Perhaps my title for this thread was a little misleading, it was an extra over claim not a delay claim as we mitigated the delay by increasing our resource levels to counter the productivity losses.
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Tue, 2007-01-09 22:09
#2
Alex Wong
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HI Brennan

Did you manage to get the claim approved??

That will help us support our case if there is a successful case

Cheers

Alex
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Tue, 2007-01-09 21:30
#3
Brennan Westworth
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Hi Abou,

Sorry for my late reply, I have been on holidays. I hope this message reaches you in time.

I found some great research by an Australian University doctor who wrote a paper on heat stress. His name is Dr Brake and he wrote his thesis on heat stress, the document is titled "Thermal Work Limit as an Index of Thermal Stress" just google it and you will find a lot of places to download the document.

The Thermal Work Limit calculation gets quite scientific but is basically is the amount of work (in W.m) a person can output under thermal stress. The productivity is then calculated by:

maximum work output under thermal stress / maximum work output possible under ideal conditions


Since our mitigation of the productivity losses was to increase our workforce in order to deliver more manhours per day, the process to calculate the variance i used quite sucessfully was:

1. define relative productivity factors for all the months of the year.
2. define the baseline manhour distribution by month.
3. remove the baseline seasonal productivity factor
4. reshedule the work which has been delayed
5. reapply the seasonal productivity factor to the new manhour distribution

calculate the difference between the total manhours for 2. and 5. , apply an hourly rate and there is your claim.

hope this has been of assistance to you.
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Wed, 2006-12-20 09:13
#4
Dayanidhi Dhandapany
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Is anyone in UAE succeeded on delay claim for Seasonal Variation. At present we are facing inclement weather conditions(medium to heavy downpour) in UAE, which was not the case before in the same period during the past. Still looking for records, i would appreciate if someone can help me in this regard.
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Tue, 2006-12-12 05:15
#5
Aktham ABOU ELNIAAJ
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Hi Brennan,
I am having the same problem as yours, where because of the delay from the client the peak was shifted to summer time with a very high temperature and humidity, I was looking for the same efficiency factor for the productivity in order to prepare the claim.
I could not find the books you mentioned in your reply, I would appreciate it if you can send to me a summary of how to calculate this factor.
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Mon, 2006-12-11 21:38
#6
Andrew Flowerdew
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David,

Oh I couldn’t agree more. When will contractors teach their planning staff how to use calenders? Every programme I see has the same summer and winter working hours, often the default software calendar.

When I tell a contractor that productivity in January can be alot less than in the middle of summer I get the answer "well we realise that", but is it reflected in the programme, normally no.

My estimate is that if you take the "summer" working period in the UK and compare it with "winter period" (from when the clocks go back in October to the end of March) a contractor will lose about 3 to 4 weeks working time if they are working daylight hours.(working hours, weather and reduced productivity due to the cold etc all come into play)

So if a one week delay occurs in the summer and the contract goes through the next winter, the delay to the completion date will be say, a week and half to two weeks (or more), but definitely not one week which is what the programme will show if the winter working conditions are not modelled correctly.
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Mon, 2006-12-11 09:18
#7
David Bordoli
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Interesting one. Here in the UK we rarely have such extremes of temperature, availability of daylight and general ‘winterness’ are our main problems. Having said that there are some weather dependent activities (evacuations in chalk and applying renders for instance) that normally would not be scheduled between say November and March (Northern Hemisphere).

I think the correct way to do this would be to have multiple calendars so, in my case (opposite to your case) working hours would be less during the winter months. In that the effects of a general season shift would be demonstrated. Then, going further, weather or temperature dependent activities would be assigned other calendars. For instance my bulk excavation activities would have a calendar that has no working time during the wet/winter months.

I have been involved in disputes for road works that encompassed these types of problems. The initial programme was drawn up with just one programme but the planner knew about non-working periods and so on and used ‘imposed starts’ and the like to shift the start of excavations out of the wet/winter months. Trouble was, when the project got into delay the manual positioning of activities was useless and it was almost impossible to recognise what was causing delay and when work would eventually be carried out. Our first job was to take out all the constrained starts and develop about eight different calendars and assign them to activities. The results were incredible, seemingly small delays to insignificant activities could puss a major activity into a non-work period and produce a massive delay to the project.

I realise it makes extra work at the beginning of the project when the programme is being set up but I reckon it will save time eventually and proved to be really useful if the project does get into delay.

Regards

David

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Thu, 2006-11-23 07:26
#8
Tahir Naseem PMP,...
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Dear Shiva
Yes you are right that in indo pak the working temprature is average above 40 deg. But my point was that the claims still alive on the basis of season/weather even there is clause to complete the job on time.
Regard
Tahir
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Thu, 2006-11-23 00:12
#9
Shiva Kumar Pothani
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Tahir!

Days of rains/heavy rains can be utilized for EOT, but variation in temperature (as we have assumed 40 deg as working environment and worked in 44deg, and we can’t state that efficiency is decreased, as you have to plan more resources as efficiency decreased or plan the work in effective hours)

regards

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Wed, 2006-11-22 18:41
#10
Tahir Naseem PMP,...
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Dear Shiva
In this case what will you do if there is continuous rain for one week and site close and unable to perform any work?
This clause only based on general condition of weather but whenever the exceptional cases, there is claim if handles carefully.
Regards
Tahir
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Wed, 2006-11-22 03:28
#11
Shiva Kumar Pothani
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Hi!

These days almost all contracts in India are included with such contract conditions as " plan the contract to complete the project in scheduled time" and time period is specifically mentioned in calender months/years, in this case one can’t claim the delay due to variation in temperatures.

Regards

Shiva Kumar Pothani
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Thu, 2006-11-02 23:16
#12
Brennan Westworth
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Well I seem to have figured it out.

There are some productivity factors for working in hot weather published in "Calculating Lost Labour Productivity in Construction Claims, Second Edition by William Schwarzkopf" and some research by Dr Derrik Brake from Curtin Uni which comes up with a value for productivity based on a thermal work limit (TWL) equation.

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Wed, 2006-11-01 00:01
#13
Brennan Westworth
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Hi Alex, hope you are keeping well.

We have justified the EOT, the claim relates to decreased productivity ie more manhours to complete the same scope.

I have found some research on Thermal Work Limit (TWL) that I may be able to translate into an efficiancy factor.
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Tue, 2006-10-31 23:04
#14
Alex Wong
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In addition, the skill labor cost also increase in season and time. you can use CPI to substaintiate that cause. as well as the labor peak during pre X Mas period. Where all trade man will be extermly busy due to the private market, therefore it pushes the cost of labour to increase. (in gerenal terms) Like during summer the cost of installing a HVAC unit is a lot more that in winter.

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Tue, 2006-10-31 23:00
#15
Alex Wong
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Brennan

Good to see you here again.

I had did a case in related to the wet and dry season. That help to determain no of working days "Dry"

I guess you can use the argument of No of days above 40 Deg during summer.( Medically you are not suggest to carryout any outdoor physical work. And I know school will stop in WA if the temp is over 40 Degree)

So if you can demomstrate the avg no of days in above 40 then you will have your labor ideal (You will still need to pay for them) Production loss due to that.

Also you will entitle EOT with all the EOT assoicated cost.
Admin, overhead, interest, financial cost ...

HTH

Alex
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