Case Study

Question 1

Was there a Schedule of Amendments on the project? Can you tell me some of the amendments made to the contract?

Answer 1

Yes, the Employer changed the payment provisions by increasing the final date of payment from the default 14 days from the due date to 21 days from the due date
Contract was also amended to incorporate the CDM 2015 regulations - with references to the CDM co-ordinator changed to the principle designer

Question 2

Why was the project allowed to proceed without any risk allowance?

Answer 2

Its my understanding that the client had a risk allowance pre contract, however due to the project being over budget and the timing constraints to get to contract, the client decided to use this to allow the project to go ahead
5% risk allowance - approximately £3M
Overbudget by £8M - VE £5M Plus £3M risk allowance

Question 3

How did you challenge the Contractor’s quotation?

Answer 3

The contractor’s quotation was merely a description of works with a lump sum cost of £150k
I asked for evidence to support the cost, i.e. how did you arrive at £150k, how much contamination is there
And they then said that the qty of contamination was unknown and that they would complete the exercise then bill the client.

Question 4

Can you elaborate on your cost advice for removal of contaminated material?

Answer 4

£30m3 for inert material - however if there was no abnormalities in the dark ground area it was deemed to be included in the contractors cost
£150m3 for contaminated non hazardous
£500m3 for contaminated hazardous
Based on my previous experience - I completed a RIBA Stage 2 Formal Cost Plan 1 for a new build warehouse project in Glasgow that was located in the dockland on a brown field site.
There was a high risk of contamination on this site, so I market tested removal of contaminated substances and included these costs within the risk register.

Question 5

What were the VE options that equated to circa £100k?

Answer 5

£35k for boundary fencing - over a km of fencing, identified this as over spec’d and VE’d to a less heavy duty fence
The other VE option was a change to the external walls for the sports block - from a sinusoidal cladding panel system with SFS with insulation to a full composite cladding wall system.

Question 6

Why were the VE options not discovered previously?

Answer 6

The design was heavily VE precontract, however due to the timing constraints the client decided to use all of there risk allowance to allow the project to go ahead at that time.
This meant that further VE needed to be carried out post contract. The VE exercise was ongoing from the design stages through to construction.

Question 7

The Scientists testing regime, is this not the same as WAC testing?

Answer 7

WAC - Waste Acceptance Criteria
No, as the soil was tested as it was excavated from the dark ground area. the on site testing exercise would also be supervised by an employer’s representative.

Question 8

Why did you obtain quotes? Why not instruct the contractor what to do

Answer 8

The contractor was continuing to insist that the material be removed immediately to stop the contamination spreading, so rather than instruct the contractor to do it
We wanted to take control of the situation, by employing an independent geotechnical scientist and we thought us obtaining the quotes would achieve best value

Question 9

Why was two stage tendering used over single stage?

Answer 9

As the project was large scale with a complex design, the Employer wanted to get the contractor on board early to benefit from their expertise of building methodology - as this could help the design
Also timing constraints - as two stage tendering allows tender and design to overlap - the main contractor was appointed at the end of RIBA Stage 2

Question 10

How were the design team novated? What was contained within the novation agreements?

Answer 10

Through a novation agreement
Scope of works, design responsibilities, post novation fees, insurance requirements - PI etc, attestation pages for signature.

Question 11

You undertook a VE exercise, what’s the difference between Value Engineering and Value Management?

Answer 11

VE is identifying specific elements and looking for alternatives that achieve better value
VM is a process where you look at the overall project and try do identify alternative options that can achieve better value.

Question 12

What was the length of time between discovering the bitumen barrels and instruction to the contractor? Did the contractor submit an extension of time?

Answer 12

8 days, no fortunately the works weren’t on the critical path and the contractor was slightly ahead of the programme so no delay was incurred.

Question 13

If you could go back, how would you ensure that the stakeholders were managed effectively to minimise the risk of key issue nr 2?

Answer 13

I would have ensured that a commercial review stage was introduced to the RDD process to collate any change proposals prior to the items being developed into the designs

Question 14

If you could go back how would you record these risk allowances and what are the risk categories

Answer 14

If I was involved earlier in the programme I would have conducted a risk workshop and produced a risk register for the project, however there just wasn’t enough time or information available for me to do this when I joined the project.
NRM defines risk into four categories - construction risk, design development risk, client change risk, client other risk

Question 15

What impact will the COVID-19 pandemic have on the handover if the school term start dates have been missed?

Answer 15

The new campus was due to be handed over in July 2020, then the client had a six week programme to decant from the existing campus into the new campus before the school term started
The new campus was handed over on 9th October 2020 and pupils moved in after the autumn break.

Question 16

What is dark ground?

Answer 16

Dark Ground is a term used to describe areas of the site that are not captured in the ground investigation report
so for example areas of the site that have existing assets or areas of the site that were not investigated due to access restictions

Question 17

Could you have made an allowance for dark ground?

Answer 17

Making an allowance for the dark ground would be difficult as the conditions are unknown,
However you could have took a measurement of the full area of dark ground and added an allowance to a risk register,
Although depending on what your anticipated soil classification was, this could be a high costing item.

Question 18

How would you make an allowance for the dark ground?

Answer 18

Hold a risk workshop with the client and design team
Identified different risk types (design, pre-construction, construction, H&S)
Reviewed the probability of the risk
Impact of the risk on cost time and quality
I allocated a possible cost effect
Then Allocated a risk factor = Probability x (Cost + Time + Quality)
Weighted Cost Effect = Probability x Possible Cost Effect

Question 19

What stage were you appointed to this project - post contract?

Answer 19

Post Contract: RIBA Stage 5 - Construction

Question 20

If you were appointed at Stage 1 what would you have done differently?

Answer 20

I would have ensured that the client allowed sufficient time and resource to complete an enabling works package to demolish the existing building
and complete further investigative works to minimise the area of dark ground on the site

Question 21

Why was sectional completion used in the contract?

Answer 21

The client knew that they wanted to take possession of certain areas of the site on specific dates, sectional completion allowed the completion dates to be perscribed in the contract

Question 22

Why was enabling works package not undertaken?

Answer 22

I was not involved in the project pre contract, however I understand that the client had a 5% contingency allowance which equated to the approx. £3M.
The likelihood of contamination across the full dark ground area is low.

Question 23

Can you tell me how the potential risk of Asbestos was dealt with on this project?

Answer 23

The client completed R&D surveys on the exisiting buildings and the asbestos removal was the contractor’s responsibility and risk under contract.

Question 24

You mention that the project was split into 15 sections. Have you executed any of the sections? As the Employers Agent how did you deal with retention during valuations post some of the sections being completed?

Answer 24

Yes, there have now been 10 sections handed over. The remaining sections are on the south site where the exisitng campus is located.
After the contractor has completed the section I issued a sectional completion certificate, then retention is dropped to half for the duration of the rectification period (24 months at Barony).

Question 25

Wouldn’t option 3 have been carried out by the duties of the consultant in Option 2?

Answer 25

No, option 2 was to complete a GI in the dark ground area to determine the extent of the contamination then to design a ground remediation strategy to contain the contamination on site.
Option 3 was to complete a GI, then test the soil on site, as it was excavated from the dark ground area to determine the correct classification and remedial action,
the exercise would also be supervised by a representative of the Employer.

Question 26

Does the SBCC D&B contract have a provision for change control?

Answer 26

Yes, SBCC DB 2016 has a schedule 2 quotation for valuation of changes
However the client intorduced their own bespoke change control procedure - as they wanted to review and approve the contractor’s quotation prior to instruction

Question 27

How did you go about assessing the three quotations raised following the RDD meeting?

Answer 27

I assessed the contractor’s quotations by firstly checking the quantities were correct. I then checked the pricing by either market testing or using fair and reasonable rates

Question 28

What would a best practice stakeholder management plan look like to avoid this issue happening?

Answer 28

• Principle 1: Communicate
• Principle 2: Consult early and often
• Principle 3: Remember they’re only human
• Principle 4: Plan it
• Principle 5: Relationships are key
• Principle 6: Simple, but not easy
• Principle 7: Just part of managing risk
• Principle 8: Compromise
• Principle 9: Understand what success is
• Principle 10: Take responsibility

Question 29

What do you feel would have been an appropriate contingency figure for this project? And how would you calculate this?

Answer 29

Ideally I would have completed a full risk register, however the full details were unknown and there wasn’t enough time, so I’d recommend 5%

Question 30

Why so many sectional completions?

Answer 30

Due to the scale and complexity of the project, the client could only allow possession of certain areas at specific times and also required sections to be completed within specific timescales.

Question 31

Any risks associated with this?

Answer 31

Yes, there is a risk that if a section is delayed it could have a consequence on the latter sections.

Question 32

How was the RDD process captured in the Contract?

Answer 32

In the Employer’s Requirements

Question 33

What do you see as being the key challenges facing the industry at this time?

Answer 33

The covid-19 pandemic could put the country into a recession and there may be businesses going into adminstration
Also, the change in working patterns could have an impact on several sectors, such as commercial property.
To align with government guideline lot of business as now promoting WFH were possible,
so this may cause these businesses to consider the need for large office space if it will be sitting empty

Question 34

Have you read any interesting articles in Modus recently?

Answer 34

Following the Grenfell disaster
in which 72 people lost their lives,
205 privately owned tower blocks
in England have been identified as
having the same type of flammable
cladding – yet almost three years
later, just 24 have had it replaced.
Why is it taking so long?
the government’s £1.6bn programme to remove and replace unsafe cladding on high rise buildings.

Question 35

Within NRM how does it deal with risk items

Answer 35

NRM defines risk into four categories - 
Design development risk
Construction risk
Employer Change risk
Employer Other risk

Question 36

Moving onto RDD, what was the initial budget for this?

Answer 36

The RDD was included in the contract

Question 37

Can you tell me the act that stipulates what you have to do with contaminated land?

Answer 37

Environmental Protection Act (1990)
Contaminated Land Regulations (2000)
Usually as part of a land contract the buyer will have rights to recover compensation from the seller if there are unidentified abnormalities in the ground. However it was the local authority that owned the site

Question 38

How do you think you could have mitigated this ground risk better during stage 2?

Answer 38

Could have completed an enabling works contract to demolition some of the existing assets and complete further investigative works to determine the ground conditions

Question 39

What were the conditions like under the existing campus?

Answer 39

To be confirmed - due to be demolished next year

Question 40

First stage of the two stage tendering exercise, can you outline the first stage tender documents?

Answer 40

ITT, FOT, Budget Contract Sum, Indicative Designs, Prelims

Question 41

Is there a way that you could have got more cost certainty at the first stage?

Answer 41

Schedule of rates

Question 42

Talk me through the RDD Process

Answer 42

RDD process was a list of reviewable design items contained within the Employer’s Requirements the needed to be finalised during the construction stage.
The contractor had based their price on a predetermined standard range of products, material finishes and layouts with number of items per room
There were a series of RDD workshops aligned with the construction programme that allowed the client to select products, finishes and agree final layouts for power and data points for example
After this the RDD item would be developed into the design and submitted for final review and approval prior to building on site.

Question 43

You say in your submission that you didn’t attend the RDD workshops, was this not in your scope of service?

Answer 43

No, the employer’s project manager was responsible for managing the process which was supposed to be realtively straightforward,
the employer and the contractors technical team would attend the RDD workshops
to select products and material finishes from the predetermined ranges and agree final layouts for power and data points and the likes
Because of the stakeholder engagement in the RDD process there was change being introduced through the RDD workshop that wasn’t following the change control procedure in the contract

Question 44

No provisional sums in contract why

Answer 44

The client wanted to enter into contract with a fixed price and provisional items are subject to change.

Question 45

Have you dealt with payment for materials off site?

Answer 45

On the Barony Campus project we recently executed a Contract of Purchase (SBCC DB 2016 Schedule 6 Part 2) between the Employer and the FF&E subcontractor for off-site materials
during the Covid-19 Pandemic, as this allowed the manufacturer to continue production whilst the site was closed.
The CoP was supplemented with a full intinerary for the Materials with photographic evidence of the materials to align with the itinerary.
The materials were marked property of the Employer and stored at the Subcontractor’s premise
After the CoP was executed the Subcontractor invoiced the Employer and in accordance with the terms and conditions of the CoP
the ownership of the materials transferred to the Employer on receipt of payment