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Construction Site Handbook

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[English | 简体] Preparation of Contract Documents

During the design stage , the engineer should recommend to the client which type of contract will be used for construction and an early decision should be made for the engineer to prepare the right form of contract documents . Ample time must be allowed for careful preparation of contract documents or otherwise may lead to unexpected additional expenditure .

There are 2 common forms of contract currently being used , namely : -

a) ICE Contract
b) FIDIC Contract

Preparation of Tender Documents
At the time of calling for tenders , it is the best to portray the full design , detailed requirements , stage completions of works , contractor’s responsibilities , terms of payment and any other special conditions into tender drawings , specifications , bills of quantities , works programme and the contract documents . With more comprehensive indications , the tenderers will more easily understand the entire scope of work such that they can submit a competitive but accurate quoted price to cover the whole of the work . Lack of adequate information in the tender documents will consequently lead to disputes and claims during and at the end of the contract .

The list of tender documents is generally as follows : -
a) Instructions to tenderers
b) Form of Tender
c) General Condition of Contract
d) Special Condition of Contract
e) General Specification
f) Particular Specification
g) Bills of Quantities
h) Methods of Measurement
i) Tender Drawings
j) Additional appendices
k) Form of Agreement

Preparation of Bills of Quantities ( BQ )
The bill of quantities is a schedule of preset work items for individual portion of contract works . It lays out the brief description of the required work and with approximate quantity taken off from the tender drawings . The contract may contain a series of bills to cover the whole of the work .

These series of BQ will form a part of the tender documents for the tenderers to quote against each item with a unit rate or unit price . The total tendered price will then be built up on basis of the provided quantity .

Valuation of the BQ items will be based on the “ preamble ” and in accordance with the procedure set forth in the “ Standard Method of Measurement ( SMM ) ”. Absolute care must be taken to check whether there are typing errors in regards of the “ BQ unit ” and the numerical figures of the “ BQ quantity ” .

Particular Specification ( PS )
Contractually the provisions contained in the Particular Specification and the Drawings shall prevail over the provisions contained in the General / Standard Specification .

Preparation of Specifications
Specification is a set of documents that describes the details of each trade of works and set out the requirements for quality of materials , workmanship , and method of tests, sequence of works, stages of inspection, acceptance criteria and any other obligations of the contractor that are not covered by the Conditions of Contract .

When drafting the specification , it is important that the clauses should be written in good and simple English so that the site staff can readily understand what the requirements are . Absolute care must be taken to avoid having conflicts with the other contract documents or otherwise may trigger out disputes during or after completion of work .

General / Standard Specification ( GS / SS )
Contractually the provisions contained in the General Specification shall prevail over the provisions contained in the standard documents such as the British Standards ( BS ) , British Standard Codes of Practice ( CP ) , American Society for Testing and Materials ( ASTM ) Standards , etc .

Preparation of Drawings
The set of tender drawings should provide all the details of proposed works that are required by the contract , however this is always not practicable owing to many reasons . One of the main reasons is that when time is of an essence , the client may want to commence the project within short time such that the client’s engineer in fact does not have sufficient time to finish up the detailed design , and sometimes even working concurrently after the work is commenced .

Nevertheless the incomplete tender drawings will most likely influence the preparation , execution and cost of work which in turn will consequently affect the tendered price . Failure to provide sufficient and correct information in the tender drawings will unavoidably lead to follow up disputes and claims

Preparation of Contract Documents Sub-Pages