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Non workable days - Europe bad weather

9 replies [Last post]
Sat, 2009-10-24 12:03
Carmen Arape
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TO : Construction planners in Europe

Here is the following planning query:

I need to know the normal non-workable days due to bad weather. I am talking about Nederlands or similar weather like in UK or Belgium.

I got from a sub-contractor a schedule using a calendar with 42 days a year for non workable days due to a bad weather plus 31 non workable days due to normal holidays and national days. Total 73 days.

Cheers,
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Replies

Tue, 2009-10-27 12:08
#1
Dieter Wambach
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Carmen

This regulation sounds generous but it’s cheaper than the old one:
During periods of bad weather when outside construction was impossible, the workers got fired and the - governmental - insurance for unemployment had to pay. After weather was ok employers waited until it was stable until they hired their workers again.
Today some days must be covered with holidays, then employers touch money for the salaries to pay. Advantage for the companies: Time can be used for trainings, ... and they keep their personnel. Advantage for the government: In total it costs less than the old regulation.

Regards

Dieter
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Tue, 2009-10-27 09:47
#2
Se de Leon
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Hi Carmen,

Does incorporating weather days in the schedule a contract stipulation? Our practice in my company is not to include weather days but, to qualify in the schedule that if weather will affect "significantly" the work, then this will be treated as possible excuse for delay. In the first place, no one really knows what’s the impact of weather days until it happened.

My 2 cents.
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Mon, 2009-10-26 13:44
#3
Mike Testro
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Hi Carmen

You did not say if the sub contractor’s 42 days still fitted in with the programme - before acceleration.

If it does then you have your 1st acceleration on the Sub contractor’s programme free of charge when you swap the 42 days for the real days.

Best regards

Mike Testro
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Mon, 2009-10-26 13:28
#4
Carmen Arape
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Planners,

Thanks for your different point of views , for instance:

Vladimir: the link to NL statistic makes me conclude that claiming 42 days/year as non working days is a non sense. Better to include a calendar with non working days due to sick leave.

Dieter: very generous your government if companies get paid for weather stop days due to bad weather conditions. That would be unthinkable in countries in South America.

Mike: to allow the sub-contractor the include the non-working days if they meet the target day is not my situation. Why, because I am assessing an acceleration schedule with acceleration costs. It sounds a contradiction to me, acceleration with such calendar.

Conclusion: trying to be fear, the 2% sounds better based on NL statistics (out of my control). If it is more than that, record the actual non-working days and issue a change order based on actual non-working days.

Cheers,
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Sun, 2009-10-25 15:57
#5
Mike Testro
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Hi Carmen

I set up a weather calendar where all anticipated weather stop days are set as non-working.

Following each progress report I switch the anticipated days to the actual days and thus reveal the true situation regarding weather.

Regarding your sub-contractor - if their requested weather days and other holidays still allows them to complete on time then let them have it on the programme calendar.

The adjustment for actual work stoppage will then show that they should be completing earlier than they are.

Another thing - if you set up a weather calendar you need to create another for inside working where bad weather will not stop work.

Best regards

Mike Testro

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Sun, 2009-10-25 12:24
#6
Dieter Wambach
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Dear Carmen

I would like to add some figures from Germany, where the Northern part is similar to Netherlands Southern and Eastern part harder due to snow.

850 Thousand Workers incl. office --> in total would be (according to German conditions) about 1,5 Billion hours without overdue hours, which I estimate between 5 and 10%. We have very generous conditions for the companies: If they must stop work due to bad weather they’ll get money from government. Paid in 2008: 13 Mio hours which is less than 1%.

Many of those conditions are short term: thunderstorm for may be 2 hours, storm for 1 or 2 days which then can be recovered during the following day(s) by overdue.

Of course in many cases it might be a good excuse fro wrong of missing planning.

Regards

Dieter

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Sun, 2009-10-25 06:00
#7
Vladimir Liberzon
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Carmen,
yes, there are rainy days in Europe but I never met this kind of restrictions for the general construction works.
Here people work on rainy days and do not complaint. In the Netherlands the rains happen frequently but rarely they are heavy.

The weather can stop the work and in some of our projects we created necessary reserves:
in the pipeline construction on the Amazon river when the construction site is 5 meter under the water at the rainy season,
in the highway construction in Siberia when on Winter the snow is several meters high and the temperatures are around -50C, etc.

I don’t think that the wind and the rain is the reason for the work delay if they are not heavy.

In any case you can get weather statistical report for the Netherlands.

I looked at the Internet and found Netherlands stistical report where it was written that bad weather leave is substantial in construction (2% of work time!) - http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/12/49/35443721.pdf.

Wind statistics you can find at http://www.windfinder.com/wind-cgi/top_surfspots.pl?queryfield=windmitte...

Rain statistics: http://www.worldweather.org/037/c00143.htm

Best Regards,
Vladimir
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Sun, 2009-10-25 02:57
#8
Carmen Arape
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Vladimir,

Kind of work??? normal civil works, and steel structure erection.

Weather conditions impacting work execution: wind over 5, less hours with sunlight and rain.

the argument would be, conditions mentioned above might impact productivity (less) or stop the work a few minutes or hours per day.

HTH,
Carmen

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Sat, 2009-10-24 12:49
#9
Vladimir Liberzon
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Hi Carmen,
what weather did they consider as non-workable? For what kind of work?
I don’t expect high waters or extreme cold in the Netherlands.

If you don’t know ask them to define the weather conditions that make the work impossible or unreasonable.

Best Regards,
Vladimir
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