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Construction DB | Construction Site Handbook | Introduction
Construction Site Handbook
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Nowadays the construction contracts and sub-contracts become more and more comprehensive and with huge amount of contract sum . In previous years , the traditional contracts , particularly the sub-contracts are always of one major activity or a combination of a few site activities such as excavation , backfilling and compaction for Earthworks ; trenching , pipe laying and manholes for Drainage Works ; formation , sub-base laying and road paving for Roadworks ; formwork , reinforcement and concreting for Concretor’s Works , etc .
However , probably being learnt by former mistakes or negligence that triggered out the subsequent disputes , the recent Clients / Developers are now trying to stay away from claims and to keep the project cost within budget by award of some sort of a lump sum contract . This type of contract is a fixed-price contract that includes the entire tendered work of which the extent is thoroughly covered under the various terms and conditions of contract , bills of quantities , method of measurement , specifications , master programme and tender drawings , and hardly would have any further price adjustment once the contract is entered into .
While the contractor is awarded the contract under the condition that it bears all the responsibility and obligation for the completion of the whole of works , no doubt this practice is preferred by the Client / Developer and will continue . Thus , the awareness of site works with a wide variety of trades and activities by the site staff becomes more and more important and sometimes even significantly affects the profit and loss of the contractor .
No matter which form of contract is being performed on a construction site , the site staff ( such as the foremen , works supervisors , site engineers , or quantity surveyors ) should have wide experience and knowledge about the activities to be carried out . Some staff might have ample experience on some trades of work but might be lacked of knowledge about the other trades . As being an aggressive duty staff , one should be courteous and humble enough to try the best to learn more from the seniors , peers , subordinates , sub-contractors , and particularly the “old men” whom had worked on construction sites for years .
Basic engineering knowledge could be easily obtained from school class and reference books , however the valuable practical on-site experience might be learnt perhaps only during the “ afternoon tea break ” or “ happy hour ” after the site work . Honestly speaking , a friendly 20 minutes chatting may come up with a contributive solution that already screens out the mistakes and failures made by someone in the past 10 years .
The coming up chapters will list out these “ wise men said ” experience in details and also provide some kind of crux to help the young engineers and the foremen to solve the site problems without being faced the repeated trials . For easy reference , they are developed in categorical terms involved in various stages of the contract and being presented in the following chapters.
Introduction Sub-Pages
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