M6 Toll Road Construction

Picking the right contractor could mean the difference between an easy and enjoyable experience and an endless sea of pain and suffering. Regardless of the size of the project, most people would narrow down the requirements of a good contractor to three general categories: cost, quality, ability to meet agreed upon time-frames. For businesses, the only additional requirement is communication. As it pains me to say, John Doe Construction failed to meet the basic expectations above, it also managed to cost us significant amount of money due to delays. The names of the guilty have been changed to protect the innocent.

Choosing construction management as a procurement strategy means the client is responsible for leading the

The traditional procurement route has become one of the standard approaches in the construction industry since the 19th century. The key characteristics of a traditional procurement route with a competitive tender process are competition or tendering cannot start until the design process is complete, the designing process is separate from the construction process and the lack of contractor involvement in the design process, with the design and technical development being carried out by the clients consultant. (Cartlidge, 2013).

The Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) now incorporated a number of new features and contracts including the Term Services Contract (TSC), Professional Services Contract (PSC) and the Framework Contract (FC). In 2005 the government’s NAO report entitled “Improving Public Services Through Better Construction” singled out the new suite of NEC3 contracts for recommendation and confirmed that a number of organisations, including Highways agency, NHS Estates and the Environment Agency, now solely use NEC3 contracts within their framework arrangements (John, B. 2005).

In order to answer this question it is assumed that a comprehensive procurement process was undertaken identifying the clients stated objectives and constraints. Any references to project particulars, objectives and constraints within this answer have been assumed based on my experience of similar client objectives in a design and build scenario.

If the client opts for design and build as the preferred method of procurement the contractor is appointed earlier in the procurement process. The Contractor’s price can be based on differing levels of information provided by the client and this can range from a simple outline scope and a couple of sketched drawings to a full tender package.

In the last few decades, the quest for continuous improvement and innovation has led to the discovery of new approaches to best practice by different players in the construction industry in the United Kingdom. These efforts have been initiated with the view to increase understanding of the needs of key business areas as well as increase client, users and stakeholders ' value. In this regard experts in the field of construction have proposed "rethinking of construction" (Egan 1998) by strategically rethinking operational stages in order to decrease cost and improve performance. One of these strategic operational stages, called the briefing process has perked the interests of the researcher in the course of producing a report

In this industry, there is a compilation of jobs that are necessary in project completion. There are those that fund, construct, analyze, budget, and schedule the project. The construction manager is the person who organizes and manages tasks between the owner, engineers, architects, and contractors. It is their duty to be as knowledgeable as many fields as possible as well as having good time management, money management, and organizational skills to ensure efficiency in

Project delivery methods allow for distinct allocation of risk and responsibilities within a construction contract. Each unique construction project calls for a defined delivery method and a written contract in order to ensure the success of the venture. “A project delivery option is defined as a method for procurement which the owner’s assignment of ‘delivery’ risk and performance for design and construction has been transferred to another party” (Mahdi 564). After a legal and appropriate contract is signed, contractual privity exists which allows the contracting parties to hold each other responsible for their actions. The design-bid-build delivery method is often referred to the traditional method of contractual relationships in the construction industry. This method allows the owner to select a design professional based off of the quality of their work, whereas the selection of the construction manager is based off competitive bids submitted after the completion of the design. The traditional method may be viewed as the tried and true system of creating successful contractual relationships, but the evolution of the industry has called for this method to take on different forms. One such form is the construction manager-at-risk (CMR) method, which allows for collaboration between the owner, designer, and construction manager during the early stages of the design process and continues throughout the life of the construction project. This agreement “makes up thirty percent

There are many different business structures in place which businesses around the world are using today. One of these business structures, used in the design and construction industry, is called Integrated Project Delivery. Integrated Project Delivery is a business style which incorporates all aspects of design throughout the entire design process. This includes, but is not limited to, all participants, business coordination’s, and business systems, and the way they interact with the specialties of the participants, in turn producing fluidity within the design and a highly effective final product. The main players within IPD are owners, architect, contractors, designers, sub-contractors, consultants and suppliers.

The current state consists of fragmented processes, which is the source of all productivity issues and inefficiency in the construction industry. The future state should be “project focused” rather than “process focused”. To achieve this desired future state it is essential that these processes are transformed to a more integrated approach. There should be better collaboration between the different stakeholders in the industry such as architects, builders, owners and regulatory agencies that issues permits. In the current, traditional system of project delivery, the relationship between these involved parties are adversarial. This can lead to the project being marred with schedule delays, budget overruns, poor quality, and disputes and litigations between the parties involved, as they play the “blame game” refusing to take liability or responsibility for the different processes. The desired future state can be reached through incorporating the more collaborative delivery methods that are gaining popularity, like Design Build and Integrated Project Delivery. These systems are based on information and risk sharing. IPD especially has a potential to incorporate Lean Construction practices and Target Value Design in the process. The alliance of the owner, builder, design professional and other specialty consultants for the project, can communicate effectively with each other on a common platform of knowledge sharing. Problems that may arise during construction or design

Royal Construction is one of the consistent house construction companies. It has been in existence for the last twenty years, with an objective of meeting the requirements of their clients and satisfying them by offering the best possible results. Recently, the company was awarded a contract of constructing a house in Ohio with Mr. Smith. He decided to offer this tender to the company because he learnt that the company offers good services at a reasonable price. The project was scheduled to take one year covering the basement, ground floor and first floor. The project is estimated to cost USD 140,536. The above description is recorded in the contract signed by both parties. This paper seeks to provide a description of human resources, communications, stakeholders, procurement, planning and control of quality in this particular project.

Specialist contractors – generally known as subcontractors – perform the majority of the work on commercial construction projects. It is common for a typical construction project to utilize dozens of subcontractors, with 80-90% of the work of most building projects in the U.S. being performed by subcontractors (Hinze and Tracey 1994). The performance of the subcontractor is critical to project success (Arditi and Chotibhongs 2005; Gray and Flanagan 1989). Commonly, subcontractors have to perform work on multiple projects simultaneously (Sacks 2004), but with limited resources, each subcontractor strives to maximum its workload at any given time for optimum resource utilization (Mathews et al. 2003; O'Brien and Fischer

The building and construction industry is a wide industry that encompasses many professionals. No one person does all the work from start to finish, many people are involved in teams that contribute to each stage of the works until completion.

The increasing size and level of complexity of a construction project will have an impact on the construction contract standard being more difficult and complex, causing a significant frequency and number disputes (Iyer, Chaphalkar, and Joshi, 2008). In fact, pre-construction contract documents are profoundly relied on by the contractor prior to making a tender in order to offer a construction project. Iyer, Chaphalkar, and Joshi (2008) point out that engineering and specifications plans are the basis for predicting on site project condition, which in turn determines the price proposals and scheme of work schedule, and contract performances. After the project has been executed, it is frequently discovered that contract document has flaws due to inaccurate data, inadequate site information, unexpected and unforeseen conditions, and human errors. In addition, the inconsistency between the actual situation and preconstruction documents which may delay the project and generate disputes (Lamari, 2008). Project personnel are the core resources of the construction project. They must deal with disagreement and uncertainty conditions, must involve the process, and usually negotiate with the dispute, which often arise during the execution of work (Diekmann and Girrad, 1995). Figure 1 illustrates the numerous collaborating potential sources of disputes in construction situations. Kumaraswamy (1997) explains