Geology Reference
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poor practice. It is then up to the arbitrator or judge to decide whether
that excuse is persuasive.
2.2.6 Final word on contracts: attitudes of parties
In practice, much depends upon the attitudes of the various parties.
Even a poorly drafted contract can be made to work so that the owner
gets his project constructed within his budget and the contractor makes
a pro
t, but this requires co-operative and non-adversarial attitudes.
To foster this attitude, formal partnering sessions are commonly used
where everyone is asked to agree some set of rules of behaviour and
professional dealings.
Whether or not this works is often down to individuals
-
especially
the RE and the contractor
s site agent. The author has experience of a
large project involving several different contracts, where the RE had a
high regard for one contractor but mistrusted another because of
previous encounters on other projects. He was of the opinion that
the second contractor had won the contract for an unrealistically low
price and therefore would be out to make its pro
'
t through claims. The
first contract went very well despite many technical problems, which
were overcome in a pragmatic manner, working as a team. Reasonable
claims were dealt with expediently and everything was completed on
time, to the required technical standards and with the contractor
leaving the site a happy man. The second contract was a direct con-
trast. All site supervisory staff were instructed by the RE not to give
him any advice, help or site instructions, to avoid chinks in the con-
tractual armour that the RE thought the contractor might exploit
through spurious claims. The contract went badly wrong; there were
technical dif
culties, delays to all later works,
financial losses and bad
feelings all around.
The Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC) in Hong Kong
have run several very challenging projects with the construction of
underground stations and tunnels in heavily congested urban areas
with all sorts of problems to be overcome. As an MTRC spokesman
put it verbally:
'
conditions are tough enough anyway without contrac-
'
tual dif
culties on top
. They therefore try to agree target-cost contracts
'
'
on a
basis for complex projects. The contractor does what
he needs to do to construct the works and gets paid accordingly. If
the contract is brought to completion below target price then the
contractor receives a bonus,
cost-plus
with the
MTRC. During one particularly challenging contract at Tsim Sha
Tsui, more than 600 ideas for better working practices were presented
during the works, together with 371 value-engineering proposals
(ways to do things more cost-effectively). As a consequence, the pro-
gramme was reduced by
if not he
'
shares the pain
'
five months with signi
cant savings in costs to
everyone
'
s bene
t.
 
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