Content area
Full Text
Many construction projects end in a delay situation that requires the contractor to justify the cause for the extension of the contract. In the absence of a proper justification, the contractor is liable for liquidated damages, as per typical contract documents. On the other hand, a contractor wants to be paid for a delay period because no allowance for delay was carried in the bid documents. Ideally, a delay analysis should be done as the work progresses, but unfortunately this is seldom the case in the construction industry. Construction delay analysis is a complex procedure in which a lot of information is reviewed, analyzed, organized, and presented in a manner that convinces the owner to agree to a time extension.
Construction delay claims are usually some of the biggest claims in the industry and are one of the major sources of litigation. Much delay-related litigation could be avoided if the proper technique were used to analyze delay. Depending upon the complexity of a project, the delay analyst may have to review contract documents, preliminary and baseline schedules, scheduling updates, project correspondence, change order files, daily superintendent reports, the minutes of project progress review meetings, and other available documents. Interviewing the construction personnel involved with the actual construction can also help to understand the actual construction sequence and to identify delay issues.
I have been a delay analyst for construction projects with a large general contractor in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. I have attempted to resolve delay claims at the owner/client level and believe that a thorough analysis and presentation of project delays can mitigate costly litigation. The better the owner understands and is confident in the technique used for the delay analysis, the more likely it is that a settlement can be reached before litigation. Many analysts use faulty techniques to quantify and qualify reasons for project delay, which may prevent an agreement. Faulty analysis such as impacted-as-planned, after-the-fact and modified CPM schedule, "but-for" schedules, the dollar-to-time relationship, and collapsed-as-built analysis should be avoided.
The most important aspect of analyzing and presenting delay analysis is demonstrating the causal effect between the owner's problems and changes and the delays and effects that those changes had on the performance of contract-critical work. The owner has to...