Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Failure to give ingress to or egress from the site: clause 26.2.6
Clause 26.2.6 covers the situation where either there is a provision in the
contract bills and/or drawings, or an agreement has been reached between
the contractor and the architect, permitting the contractor means of access to
the site 'through or over any land, buildings, way or passage adjoining or
connected with the site and
in the possession and control of the Employer'
. The
contractor must, of course, comply with any requirement as to notice.
The words emphasised above should be noted; the clause does not apply
where the employer may have undertaken to obtain a wayleave across land
which is not in his possession and control. In such a case failure by the
employer to obtain the wayleave would give rise to a claim at common law.
It should be further noted that the land etc. must be in both the possession
and
the control of the employer, and the land etc. must also be 'adjoining or
connected with the site', which would suggest that there must be contiguity
but not necessarily physical contact.
Variations and work against provisional sums: clause 26.2.7
Valuations of the work involved in, and general consequences of, variations
and instructions issued by the architect for the expenditure of provisional
sums are dealt with in clause 13, which is discussed in Chapter 13. Clause
26.2.7 covers disturbance costs where the introduction of the variation or
provisional sum work materially affects the regular progress of the works in
general. In considering entitlement to payment under this ground, it must
be remembered that clause 26 does not cover a situation where the con-
tractor would be reimbursed under any other clause. Particular care must be
taken when considering entitlement under this ground, because clause 13
includes provision for the quantity surveyor to adjust the preliminary items.
It is sometimes difficult to decide whether an event should be reimbursed as
additional preliminaries or as loss and/or expense. However, the practice
which is prevalent among some contractors, of submitting a claim in the
alternative (variation or loss and/or expense) is prohibited by the distinc-
tion referred to above.
Approximate quantity not a reasonably accurate forecast of the quantity of
work: clause 26.2.8
This matter was introduced with the use of the Standard Method of Meas-
urement 7th Edition (SMM7). Quite simply, it is intended to cover the
situation where an approximate quantity has been included in the bills of
quantity, but the quantity of work actually executed under that item is
different, either greater or less. As long as the approximate quantity is
reasonably accurate, the contractor has no claim. What is 'reasonably accur-
ate' will depend upon all the circumstances, but as a rule of thumb an
approximate quantity which was within 10% of the actual quantity probably
