Finnie, D; Ameer Ali, N and Park, K (2021) Early contractor involvement: a review of pre-construction service agreements. Proceedings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Management, Procurement and Law, 175(4), pp. 143-150. ISSN 17514304
Abstract
Early contractor involvement involves engaging contractors to work with the client's design team during the pre-construction stage before agreeing on a construction stage contract. Despite the growing use of two-stage contracting, there is a lack of research into the forms of pre-construction service agreements and their effectiveness. This study aims to evaluate the optimal contract ingredients for a pre-construction stage agreement that can be used with a range of standard-form construction contracts based on industry preferences. Four agreements are critically evaluated: those of the Joint Contracts Tribunal and NEC3 and two bespoke agreements. Key ingredients were found to include scope of services, time obligations, design obligations, key personnel, price formation, confidentiality of material and communication and co-operation. Industry preferences were obtained through semi-structured interviews with 21 construction participants across New Zealand.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction management; contracting; procurement |
| Index terms: | pre-construction, Joint Contracts Tribunal, New Zealand, agreements, effectiveness, construction contract, early contractor involvement, design team, personnel, interview, preference, confidentiality |
| Subjects: | project delivery, contract formation, data collection methods, management, performance management, contractual arrangements, professional practice, standard-form contract drafting bodies, contract type, professional ethics, Geography, decision-making and reasoning |
| Topics: | Legal Issues, Quality Management, Procurement, Project Management, Geographical Context, Contract Administration, Design Practice, Human Resources, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here