Disruption claims are a means for a contractor to recover the lost efficiency in its operations caused by one or a combination of events. The measure of the disruption, put simply, will be the cost incurred because of the disrupting event less the cost of doing the same work without the disrupting event. One way to measure the correct baseline efficiency is to identify a “measured mile” in other words an area of the project where the same work was carried out but was not subject to the disrupting event.
The key to any disruption event is the link between the cause of the disruption and the effect the event had, in fact, on site. Demonstrating the cause and effect link can be very difficult particularly where detailed records of site activities have not been kept.