Management of Construction Contracts: Practical Solutions for Delays

Management of Construction Contracts
Name of Student
Institution

Management of Construction Contracts 2
Abstract
The law on building and construction applies the essential elements of contracts generally.
Construction contracts to be legally enforceable should therefore posses all the elements such as
offer, acceptance, capacity, illegality, intention to create legally binding contract as well as
consideration. Construction contracts are therefore treated as general contracts (Kelleher Jr et al,
2014, p. 9).
This proposal and report about the Burnaby building at Portsmouth University (the University)
has discussed practical solutions to circumstances that are likely to cause delays in a contract for
building and construction. It has exhaustively discussed the rights duties and responsibilities of
contracting parties; the contractor, employer and specialists engaged to carry out specialized
works in the construction works. Other than having the main contract, other specialized works
such as removal of asbestos have been proposed to be contained in facilitating contracts that are
ancillary to the main contract but under the direct supervision of the main contractor
(Kumaraswamy & Yogeswaran, 2008, p. 37).

Management of Construction Contracts 3
Introduction
Building and construction adopt standard form contracts generally but the process of their
conclusion performance and remedies available for their breach resembles those applicable under
any other form of general contract. The elements required of a valid contract however have to
exist for such a contract to be legally enforceable. The contract should have a dispute resolution
clause that provides for the manner and forum for resolving disputes arising out of a disputed
contract for building and construction. Contracts for building and construction generally employ
alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in resolving construction disputes.
Arbitration is always preferred as the parties maintain a control over the dispute as to opposed to
a judicial process where the control of the dispute resolution process is taken away from the
parties. The practical solutions that this paper proposes would majorly form part of the
provisions of the main contract document with an exception of a few matters that require
specialized treatment that will require inclusion in a facilitating contract that is ancillary to the
main contract (Robinson & Lavers, 2010, p. 51).
The main contract incorporates the facilitating contract through reference; the main contractor
shall also have the general supervisory powers over all the contracts relating to the project. The
facilitating contracts could be numerous as every specialized works will require different people
skilled in varied fields and therefore the need to have each specialist and their duties and
responsibilities reduced into writing differently (Chan & Suen, H. C. (2015)
The relocation of Equipment and Staff

Management of Construction Contracts 4
The construction contract would relate to the carrying out of works on an already existing
Burnaby building which needs to be improved and the floors increased. Naturally, there are
persons who are employed by the Portsmouth University and use the building as their work
offices together with the equipment they use for their day to day activities in the provision of
services to the university. These persons and their equipment will require to be moved to create
space for the construction works (Barrie & Paulson, 2012, p. 67).
There are two options for the moving of staff and equipment; relocating them to already existing
structures within the university or to temporary structures built for such purpose. Though the two
options are available, there are factors that should be taken into account before settling into one
or the other. The most important factor to be considered is the security of both the equipment and
the staff. It is natural that security may not be guaranteed if the staff and equipment are moved to
some temporary structure with no security. To ensure that both the staff and equipment are safe,
relocation would be to the existing structures.
Another factor that should be considered is the available space. The number of staff and
equipment available might be more than the available space; this would mean that certain
equipment especially those that are not used on a daily basis are kept in temporary and makeshift
structures but with enhanced security to avoid any loss or destruction that may make the
university to incur additional costs in replacing equipment that have been destroyed by bad and
unfavorable weather conditions or otherwise stolen (Bruner & O'Connor, 2012, p. 48).
Considering the available options, the existing structures are preferred when relocating staff and
equipment as security is guaranteed. Existing structures would also provide better working
environment and conditions to the staff as they should, even when the construction works