Construction Management Guide

What are the options available and mechanisms that a contractor should have in place to safeguard its interests in the event of its employer becoming insolvent? MARTIN PRESTON* of Norton Rose provides a guideline. (Read more..)

by Dennis Brand

How does the New Engineering Contract (NEC) compare to FIDIC? Dennis Brand examines the uptake of NEC in the region and outlines what you need to know. (Read more..)

by Gordon Moffat

The NEC Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) – previously the New Engineering Contract – was first introduced in 1993 and the third edition, NEC3, came into operation in 2005. Despite the considerable press coverage it has received in the UK, it is still very new to a lot of contractors and employers. (Read more..)

The UAE construction industry is experiencing a growing yet significant debate, driven by the desire of Employers to successfully procure and deliver projects through alternative contractual pricing mechanisms. (Read more..)

by Paul Taylor

Having considered the process of termination of construction contracts, the equally important subject of suspension of the works on a construction project should also be considered. (Read more..)

Following on from the article on delay analysis in last month’s edition of Gulf Construction, ADAM WEBSTER explains how to manage the risk of delay through proper contractual and practical management in the region’s fast-track construction industry. (Read more..)

Christopher R. Seppälä, Elizabeth Lefebvre-Gross

Faced with a drastic increase in the cost of commodities—for example, of steel, or oil—that undermines the economic assumptions of a construction contract, lawyers trained in the common law may believe that, if the contract has no price-escalation clause, the only relief from the contract available is termination on the grounds of frustration, impossibility, or impracticability. In fact, outside the common law countries, it may be possible to obtain other relief, including an increase in the contract price, to take into account changed circumstances after a contract has been signed. Several examples are provided below. (Read more..)

by Dennis Brand

Ask a group of industry professionals to state what they believe to be the most important provision in a construction contract and you will probably get as many varied responses as there are people in the group.

Give the same group of people a copy of a standard form contract (e.g. FIDIC, ICE or JCT) to read with a form of Particular Conditions or similar attached, and invariably they will look first at the Particular Conditions and possibly no further. (Read more..)

by Steven Hunt

I sense that, for many contractors, ‘taking over’ is seen as the moment when the proverbial foot can come off the gas – the time when the contractor is finally relieved of the burden of delivering the project.For a contractor the process of taking over is an important one as the care of the works will pass to the employer and the employer’s entitlement to recover liquidated damages will cease. It is not, however, the end of the story for the contractor as he will remain liable for defective workmanship and materials beyond handover. (Read more..)