Can I claim gain achieved whilst within a CE

I have a current project in which the groundworks activity was generous in the time allowed and I expected to finish this item in 10 days rather than the 22 contained in the accepted programme. however after the first day of this activity we discovered unidentified services and a compensation event was raised. the remainder of the job was in delay but the groundworks continued in unaffected areas and only took the expected 10 days not the 20 as per the initial accepted programme.

the CE for diversion of the services ran on for 70 odd days. Do I have to deduct the 22 days I had originally allowed in my accepted programme off the 70 days to work out actual cost of site overheads/prelims or can I use the 10days that the activity actually took? (The contract is the NEC Short Form with activity Schedule.)

The way I am looking at it is the CE negated the gain I would have achieved had the services been as per the works information. Now instead on being on course to finish 12days early and save the cost of my site setup and foreman etc do I loose the 12 days as the client will claim I had allowed 22days in my original programme?

Thanks

Ruairi

Ruairi

Whilst you say that a compensation event was notified to the PM you have not said whether or not it has been accepted.

Assuming that the PM has accepted the matter is a compensation event, I would advise him/her that the date of his/her notification is the trigger point between using Defined Cost of work already done and forecast Defined Cost.

Should that date be after completion of the groundworks (10 days) then the cost of the 12 days delay would automatically fall in the CE.

If the date was before completion of the groundworks you will have to demonstrate the effect of the CE and that if it had not occurred you would have out-performed the programme. This could be difficult depending on how may days of non-effected performance you had.

The learning to take is that the programme should be a realistic expectation of how you intend to deliver the works.

From your description is doesn’t actually sound like the groundwork’s were ever on the critical path and therefore this question is moot.

However, if they were on the critical path I would generally say you keep the time as they will be based on an impact on the Accepted Programme immediately before the event updated to the date when the event arose. That you had plenty of risk in an activity bar is your choice and that doesn’t get converted to float the project or employer can use until after you have completed the activity.

There are obviously lots of facts here that would need to be unravelled to get a proper answer.