NEC ECC: Sectional completion date for design with no delay damages

NEC3 and NEC4 Contracts General
1

I am managing a Contract for my client under option C, and they have included a sectional completion date for design in CD part 1, but have not allocated any delay damages against this item (noted as Nil, so its not an error!). There are other construction sectional completion dates with delay damages attracted per week.

Is there any benefit to this for design or any penalties to the Contractor?

2

The only benefit that I can think of is that it highlights the importance of meeting the date.

However, the drawback is that they categorically canNOT claim any damages for late delivery of design. If they had put it as a constraint in the Works Information (NEC3) or Scope (NEC4), they arguably could, but that is a subject for legal debate !!