NEC & BIM

A few people have asked 'is there going to be an NEC compliant BIM contract (or amends) in time'? The answer is at the moment there are no amends being drafted, nor do we see them being required. Of course things may change as BIM develops.

NEC has representation with the UK Governments' BIM implementation group where, amongst other things, the group is discussing liability, negligence, deliverables, copyright, IPR and so on. NEC will input into this group by monitoring/reviewing/advising and looking over the protocol the group is writing.

From my perspective and in simple terms, BIM is a design process based on a common platform. It it appears that BIM is in no way intended to change the current liabilities structure that we have - in time we may have integrated project insurance (IPI) but IPI isn't BIM and vice versa.

From an NEC perspective therefore, if such a process (protocol) is required then the requirements to work to this should rightly be in the Works Information (ECC) or the Scope (PSC). The biggest issue with BIM seems to be data supply and current thinking is that this could comfortably be accommodated through a mixture of key dates and sectional completion.

Rob

Student NEC research

Dear all,

Please spare a bit of time to complete the attached survey for a masters student doing a dissertation on NEC3 ECC Option C.

Many thanks,
Rob

www.surveymonkey.co.uk/nec3

The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act

I'd like the job of naming Acts of Parliament......!

Anyway, as an update to a previous Blog, The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 contains a substantial number of provisions in the broad areas of local democracy and involvement, local authority governance and audit, boundary and electoral change, local and regional economic development and construction contracts. It received Royal Assent on 12 November 2009. Part 8 of the Act amends the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 to improve payment practices and dispute resolution in the construction industry. The new Act is apparently to be in force from 1 October this year and NEC drafters are busy finishing off necessary amendments to the applicable NEC3 Contracts and these will be available during September 2011.

Rob

Claimsmanship or fraud?

When I was a jobbing QS on my first contract in civils, a game appeared to be going on. This was replicated everywhere that I could see/hear about, and still seems to be going on a little bit today. Where a Contractor had a 'claim' he would eventually apply for additional time and/or money. Let's concentrate on the time bit. Word was that the independent impartial engineer would subsequently slice this by about 2/3 so guess what the Contractor did? Ramped it up accordingly of course. Client-side QS's also were issued with red pens in that era, what did we do with them? Use them of course to knock down star rate items the Contractor asked for in his application for additional works. So what, where am I rambling off to....

I read a really interesting article from a UK lawyer a while back (which I simply cannot find nor recall who, when etc) in which he suggested that asking for even 1 penny more than you knew you were due constituted fraud - how very interesting! I wonder how many surveyors (and perhaps other disciplines) have asked for more money than they knew they were entitled to? This of course would be a criminal offence and should therefore be taken extremely seriously.

So, any support or dissent to the notion that (and this might make quite an interesting dissertation) deliberately claiming even a penny more than you know you are entitled to constitutes fraud?

Answers on a postcard please......

Rob

NEC suite replaces ICE CoC

Hi,

Reported in the Construction Index just is that the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has formally transferred its part ownership of the ICE Conditions of Contract that it developed 66 years ago to the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) and the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA). ACE and CECA have now launched a new standard suite of forms of contract based on the former ICE Conditions of Contract, called the Infrastructure Conditions of Contract.

In an age where we seem to be thankfully and at long last to be heading away from the Dark Ages and towards the post-Latham collaboration era, it will be interesting to see how the newly badged contract fares. Good luck to them, but presumably the upkeep/investment from ACE/CECA subscribing members will be justified and someone in the industry is actually crying out for this?

Answers on a postcard please..........

Rob

http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/construction-news/infrastructure-contract-suite-replaces-ice-coc