Hi Raviraj

If the contractor has missed out the procurement periods then they shoud be added in.

Any ensuing delay will be the Contractors fault and this should work as a concurent delay.

Now you can impact the delay issues and award an EoT from Contractors delay to the impacted end date.

With the Balfour v Chestermount ruling the Dot-On priciple will mean that the EoT period will run from the Contract completion date and the contractors delay will be concurrent.

This means that the contractor will get relief from LAD’s for the extended period but no costs for the concurrent period.

For example.

1. Original completion date is day 250.
2. Add in the missing procurement and the end date is day 300.
3. This gives a concurrent contractors delay period of 50 days (300-250).
4. Add in the employers delays and the end date is day 400.
5. This gives an EoT of 100 days (400-300).
6. The contract completion date is now day 350 (250+100)
7. The Contractor is paid 50 days costs between days 300 > 350 and gets relief from LAD’s.

I hope that is clear.

Best regards

Mike Testro

6. The Extension of time will be to day 350 (250+100)

What matter is, cause and effect, if the delay was because of errors and omissions by the designer then ask the designer for the extra costs as result of the design errors and omissions.

Procurement activities might add up to the hundreds, maybe as much as construction activities. It is not uncommon not to include those not expected to become critical, and then add them when become near critical or critical. The responsibility of the Contractor is to warn the Owner as soon as he discover the delay or possibility, it does not matter if was included or not in the original CPM, as a matter of fact most delay activities are not included in the original CPM as you cannot predict the future.

The Designer should have an error and omissions insurance policy against which you can place the claim.

I wonder if the Contractor might have a cause of action against the Designer or even against those negligent in the evaluation of his claim.

Raviraj,

Thanks for the reference, very good indeed.

"Some courts hesitate to treat a time-bar clause as a condition precedent to a valid claim; others hold that a time-bar is inapplicable if the building contractor is entitled to make a claim for delay or disruption caused by the employer (‘the prevention principle’)."

As a Contractor I always play it safe, inform of a delay as soon as it shows. This type of clause is very common in our contracts. Although usually on the Contractor’s side I understand there are valid reasons for such clauses, the Owner must be informed to take corrective action. But in no way this means at the Baseline Schedule.

Best regards,
Rafael