I am currently carrying out a post completion review on the choice to adopt the use of an Option B contract for a highway maintenance scheme, which encountered several changes during construction due to unforeseen’s, notably the drainage design.
I am keen to understand next time what should be considered in the selection of the option, i.e. what factors should be considered between selecting either Option A and C, or Option B and D.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
The choice of contract is not an easy topic to condense as the influencing factors are so broad.
The options available are:
Option A: priced contract with activity schedule
Option B: priced contract with bill of quantities
Option C: target contract with activity schedule
Option D: target contract with bill of quantities
Option E: cost reimbursable contract
Option F: management contract
The choice is conditional on (and this is extremely condensed) what you are trying to achieve, what resources you have in place to operate the Contract, the time you have before the works begin and, how important you consider price certainty to be. In simple terms define your requirements and see which option best fits.
Declan is right to point out that this is not an easy topic to condense into an answer on Reachback. Can I suggest that you review other published sources of information for a more in depth analysis: ECC Guidance Notes, NEC Managing Reality series and our very own Jon Broome’s NEC3: A User Guide.