Francis Ho on how the CIOB Complex Projects Contract, published this month, will change the way we work.
This month sees the launch of a new contract from the CIOB, the Complex Projects Contract 2013 (CPC2013). New contract publications can be breathless affairs; employers and contractors are concerned with how the form apportions project risks, insurance advisers want to make sure that their clients know what they’re signing up to and then there are the incumbents resistant to changes to the status quo.
These are all understandable standpoints although, in the case of CPC2013, the form shouldn’t be an unknown quantity. A consultation edition of the contract has been available since last May and the forthcoming first edition benefits from numerous comments from the international construction industry. The contract’s authors have listened, clarified, pruned, supplemented and kicked the tyres.
A no-nonsense user guide will debut alongside the new contract, which does what good user guides should by adding insight and commentary. On the other hand, if you want to know how this contract works, you need do nothing more than to read it. Its structure is logical and it is written in plain English, not legalese.
Unlike particular forms, CPC2013 doesn’t favour one party and is disencumbered by any vested interests. It has a grander purpose. Major projects are beset by time and cost overruns. Time management experts can pinpoint the causes for these through careful analysis but by then it’s usually too late; the damage has been done and the parties are left pointing fingers (or worse).
Effective tools
Taking a different approach, CPC2013 is designed to substantially manage, reduce and avoid time and cost risks contemporaneously though collaboration and transparent and effective tools. But how can it succeed where others have failed?
The key lies in understanding that it is not enough simply to hold the parties to fixed points in an agreed programme for the works. The quality and underpinnings of the programme are also paramount. This in mind, CPC2013 concentrates on ensuring that sufficient information is communicated to manage time effectively. Detailed record keeping covers scheduling, resources and productivity to help project participants understand and manage time risks as early as possible.
Quality assurance processes govern the preparation and maintenance of a dynamic programme (called the working schedule) and there are direct links between claims for extensions of time and the working schedule and the contractor’s specified methods of working. The parties must deal with the approval or rejection of the contractor’s submissions early on rather than leave these unresolved and, consequently, potential breeding grounds for later disputes minimised. A project time manager, with a duty to act fairly and reasonably, helps advise on and oversee these processes.
BIM ready
While time management is one of the main pillars of the new contract form, its others are worthy of due attention. CPC2013 is the first construction contract to be ready for Building Information Modelling (BIM), the modern digital standard for collaborative design (the UK government intends all public sector construction contracts to incorporate BIM by 2016). Maintaining this 21st century feel, communications between the parties are addressed through email, file transfer protocols and a common data environment.
Elsewhere in the contract, provisions cover deleterious and hazardous materials and the involvement of an expert aids the mitigation and quick resolution of disputes during the works. CPC2013 also caters for construction both on a design and build and a works-only basis, and can be used overseas as well as in the United Kingdom.
Einstein once said that it was not possible to change the world without changing our thinking. By examining and taking sweeping steps to deal with the causes of delay to complex projects, there’s little doubt CPC2013 may ruffle a few feathers. But this bold approach to time management is one which must be taken. I invite you to read the contract when it launches in a few short weeks and judge for yourself.
Francis Ho is a senior associate at Olswang and co-author of the CIOB Complex Projects Contract 2013. CPC2013 launches on 23 April 2013 with a series of CIOB-organised events. For more information visit www.ciob.org.uk/CPC.
