NEC3 ECC: Ambiguity between Contractor's design/EmpLoyers WI

On a ECC Option C an anomaly is spotted in the Works Information for the Contractor’s design. As part of their Works Information they have included their mechanical and electrical Subcontractor’s proposal for an automatic lighting system. However, in the Contractor’s documents they state a manual lighting system.

  1. What process should be instigated in order to resolve this? 2) The Employer wants the automatic system, who should pay for this? 3) How does this affect the Prices and Defined Cost?
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Very simple this one. You don’t say if the Contractor’s design has been “accepted” by the Project Manager, but it makes no difference to the answer.

  1. PM notifies to Contractor ambiguity between Works Information and instructs which one they want.
  2. This change to the Works Information is an exception to it being a CE as it is to meet requirements of original Employer Works Info- 60.1(1).
  3. No change to total of Prices i.e. target does not move, but equally this will not be a disallowed cost either (unless you have Z clause amendments that say otherwise).

Therefore the cost of this change will be shared within “gain/painshare”

I do not understand why this is an exception, 60.1(1) . I understand that both the Employer and the Contractor have provided Works Information. The Employer Works Information take precedence against the Contractor ones. if now the Project Manager instructs the one that the Contractor included, why is this not a CE? Bullet point 2 of 60.1(1) says if the change is made either at the request of the Contractor or to comply with other Works Information. In this case it is made at the request of the Project Manager and the change is not made to comply with the Works Information as the Project Manager wants actually the system proposed by the Contractor. Therefore I consider this should be a CE. Please advise

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The original question was not actually that clear. It depends on who created the ambiguity. The exception in 60.1(1) is if the Contractor suggests a change to WI (but only when it is a Contractro designed scheme), which means there will be no change to the Prices and and VE saving will be shared uder option C as gainshare. The other exception is the instruction is to change the Works Information to comply with other parts of the Employers WI. This means if they have accepted a Contractor design that turns out not to comply with the original Employers WI then this would not be a compensation event.
You therefore need to apply these contractual rules to your specific scenario to see liability.

Thanks Glenn.