Factor affecting construction work scheduling

Developing a work plan for construction work in a contract required some basic important information. In a contract, it will always emphasize "TIME". In other words, TIME IS THE ESSENCE OF A CONTRACT. 

Generally, the term "time is the essence" simply means that a contract must have a starting date and closing date. This will be a guide for any work plan. Whatever scope of works is involved in order to complete a project, it shall be done within this period of time. This limited time available for any construction work in a contract will determine which construction method to be applied. The agreed construction period in a contract will also directly affect the type of machinery to be used and how much manpower need to be engaged. 

Despite the time frame given, manpower, and machinery we are chosen, when we plan a construction schedule, the bottom line is how much we are going to pay for all the costs. We shall be aware of the cost implications versus the agreed contract sum. In other words, when planing a construction work schedule, these major two (2) factors shall be balanced off. The two important factors are always "Time" and "Cost".

In general, to shorten the construction period, more manpower or machinery is required or more advanced construction technic is needed.

Five important information when estimating construction work duration

These are the basic important information you must not missed out when estimating construction work duration.

1. Quantity of the works

2. Construction technic

3. Work output. (Eg. 30m3/hr/machine)

4. Work procedure 

5. Engineering practice

Work method statement : water recticulation works

WORK METHOD STATEMENT

WATER RECTICULATION WORKS



A. Excavation and Backfilling For Pipe Trenches.

1. Before commencing for the excavation of pipe trenches, the routes of pipelines shall be pegged out accurately.  Interval of each peg shall not exceed 60m apart and clearly marked with level to which the pipe to be laid. Pegs alignment and level for the gradient in which the pipe to be laid shall be jointly checked and verified between Resident Engineer and Contractor representative. All pegs shall be maintained in position and at the correct level from the time excavation commences until back-filling completed.
2. The trench shall have a working space of 150mm on either side of the outside pipe when properly aligned. At all joints the trench shall be excavated to give a working space of not less than 300mm all-round the joint.

3. The trench shall be excavated to the depth as shown in the drawings.

4. At all time, the trench shall be kept free from standing water.

5. Trenches shall only being backfill after the pipe laying works is accepted and approved by Resident Engineer. Before the pipelines have been satisfactorily tested, only sufficient backfilling of the trench to prevent “snaking” and to maintain the pipe in position shall be allow as directed by Resident Engineer. However all joints shall be left exposed until pipeline have been satisfactorily tested and approved by Resident Engineer.

6. Backfilling material for the trench shall be free from stones or rocks or other hard materials. Backfilling material shall be carefully spread along the trench bottom between the pipes and trench walls and shall be compacted by method of hand rammed.



B. Pipe Jointing, Pipe Laying and Testing.

1. No pipe shall be laid until the trench has been inspected and approved by Resident Engineer. The trench shall be kept sufficiently dry for making jointing.

2. All joints shall be done in accordance to the construction drawings and to the Manufacturer recommendations.
3. Laying of pipe shall be gently lowered into the trench manually or by means of combination usage of excavator and sling ropes or any other method as seen fit or as instructed by Resident engineer. No pipe shall be rolled and dropped into the trench.

4. Before any pipe, special and valve is laid in position ready for jointing , its internal surface shall be inspected and ensured free from any dirt, stones, etc.

5. At all time when works is not actually being carried out at such open ends, Suitable stops shall be fixed to all open ends of the pipelines in the trench as to prevent entry of foul water, earth and other foreign matter into the pipelines.

6. Once each jointed section of pipeline reach minimum length of 100m or more but not exceeding 1500m or as directed by Resident Engineer, the pipeline shall be lowered into the trench and partially backfill and all joint shall be left exposed. The Pressure test shall then be conducted on the pipeline in the present of Resident Engineer or his representative. Pressure test shall be conduct in accordance to the Manufacturer recommendation or gradually pressurised until the required test pressure of 1.5 X maximum working pressure is achieved and hold for 15 minutes before the pressure are released.

7. Testing of pipeline shall not been carried out in the middle of the day or even towards the late afternoon.

Application for Extension of time in construction project

Good day readers.

In this article we will discuss how can we lodge on our application for the extension of time in construction project. Previous article in this blog, I do write on types of delay and managing delays in construction. I also did mentioned that one or the method in managing delay is by application for Extension of time(E.O.T). The question now are, what is the process, what documents are required and how to write?

Below is the step by step process.

Start ( when the event occur)

1. Analyzed to ensure the event is eligible for EOT.
2. Write and officially issue notice to inform client on the possible impact of the event. 
3. Write and submit official EOT application to client.

In the application, supporting document are important document that Shall not be missed out. Below are list of some of the important supporting document  to be submit together:

1. Event chronology,
2. Project time line
3. Work program
4. Related Minutes of meeting
5. Related official letter or notices
6. Related photo with date
7. Any related document that can prove the delay.

The most important document is the official letter. Those letter shall be write in a manner that it shall refer to the correct subject and also quoted relevent clause in. the contract.

Managing delay in construction project.

Hai all.

In my previous posting, we discussed on the reasons of delay. The three type of delay are due to contractor fault, Client matters and unforeseen external factor.

Now in this posting, our the question is how to manage delay in construction? The discussion here will focused base on why delay happened? Who's fault is it?

Delay due to contractor own fault. This type of delay as mentioned in previous posting, contractor will not be granted extension of time (should the construction work overshoot the agreed construction period). Instead, contractor will be panelised as allow in the contract.

Hence how to avoid the delay beyong agreed construction period and avoid being panelised? There are  three (3) major method can be applied.

1. Working longer hours
2. Increase manpower, machine, plants and equipment
3. Change the construction method.

However, prior to deciding on which method to be use, contractor have to keep in mind that when they in the delay mode the most important issue is time and reputation.

As the remaining construction period getting shorter, contractor need to speed-up their works and to ensure that they completed the construction project as agreed in the contract. Thus the cost to expedite the construction work will be the second priority to be achieved. Nevertheless, as much as possible, contractor need to stay within the contract value to ensure or minimised losses due to the delay.

Delay caused by client and by external factor. This type of delay is much more easy to dealth with. Most contractor will prefer to apply extension of time(EOT). However proper documentation must be in-place. Prior to EOT application, contractor shall fulfill all of the procedure as mentioned in the contract. Some of the procedure are, to serve notice to client and to keep and produce any documents that can proved the delay was originated from client. Apart from that, contractor need to proved that the event will and already affected the critical path of the project.

Why construction project delay?

Hi readers, it has been quite sometime that this blog had been not updated. Today we meet again through this posting.

Construction delay, construction delay, construction delay !!!!

Why its happened to most of the contractor? What is the reason behind this delay?

First of all,what are the main reason for delay?
There are three (3) major type of delay.
1. Delay due to contractor fault.
2. Delay due to client reason.
3. Delay due to unforeseen external factor.

What are the root cause for construction delay due to contractor fault.

1. Fail to estimate and plan for the project budget and cash flow.
2. Fail to plan for a proper construction activities & work flow sequence
3. Fail to understand the construction procedure
4. Fail to procure required materials, machinery, equipments and construction experts in order to run constructions activities smoothly.
5. Lack of technical knowledge in the works undertaken.

Bear in mind, delay due to contractor own fault will not be granted for any extension of time. Extra working period taken by contractor to complete the project will be charge liquidated and ascertained damages by client. Not only that,  further delay to the project by contractor can caused stern action being taken against contractor up to termination of the contract and all termination.

How about delay on part of the client. Here are some of the reasons why.

1. Design change by client
2. Delay in payment to contractor.
3. Delay in client decision(s)
4. Additional scope of work requested by client.
5. Insufficient information given to contractor.

Delays due to client fault will always resulted in contractor being granted reasonable extra time to enable contractor complete the project.


Apart from contractor and client fault, unforeseen external factors also can be the reason for delay. In numerous occasions, reasons of nature and unforeseen human activities that can hindered both contractor and client to perform their duties diligently. What are the two mentioned before. Here are some of it.

Due to nature;
1. Extreme increment weather
2. Natural disaster

Cause by human;
1. Riots
2. Global or internal economy crisis
3. In sufficient workforce in construction industries
4. Sudden material shortage
5. Changes in government policies.
And etc.

Delay due to unforeseen external factors resulted to contractor being awarded extension of time or worst case scenario, mutual termination.

Now we know reasons why delays occur in construction. Then the question is, how do we solve this issue?

Keep on following this blog for the next posting. Thank you and have your nice day.

PROJECT QUALITY PLAN : MAJOR CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES FOR ROAD PROJECTS

In roads construction, there is numbers of testing that need to be conducted in order to fulfill the design requirement and also to achieve the quality of end product. Thus even basic knowledge of testing required for any of the executed work in the construction of roads is very important.

Before we proceed with type of test that need to be performed during the construction period, here is the major works that in general will take place along the construction period.

1. Site preparation.
During the site preparation stage, among the sub activities involve are Boundary survey, existing ground level survey, Land clearing, Grubbing, preparation of temporary access, Offices and accommodations,

All those activities does not need any testing. However joint inspection between contractor and client is required.

2. Earthwork
Earthwork actually can be divided into two (2) main work category. The categories are "Cut" and "Fill". In general practice, cutting activities is to form slopes as per construction drawings and to bring down the existing ground level to designed platform level. The cut earth from cutting activities then can be utilized as fill material for "fill" or "embankment" works. Under the "cut" activities, normally there is no testing required but joint inspection need to be conduct to ensure the proposed level and slope formation is in accordance with the construction drawings.

As for fill works there is steps need to be follows. Standard practice will required that the filling work need to be done in layer that is not more than 300mm thick.However the thickness of the layer is also subject to the capacity of the compactor used to achieve the desired degree of compaction. Prior to filling activity, all proposed fill material need to be sampled and tested to ensure its suitability and conformance towards design parameter for the embankment .

3. Pavement & Road Shoulder
The pavement it self are consist of Subgrade, Subbase, Roadbase, Asphaltic Concrete Binder Course (ACB) and Asphaltic Concrete Wearing Course (ACW). Each of these works have their own degree of acceptance base on the design specification. As such, Laying of each of the element need to follow a proper work method statement which had been approved by the Superintending Officer in order to achieve the required quality.

4. Road Furniture & Signages
Among the components of the road furniture are guardrails, road lining or also named as road marking, Road kerb, road reflector or sometimes called as "cat eye". Where as for signage's, it can range from the safety sign for road user such as speed limit signages to the name of any junction along the road. Some of the road project will also include the  chainage marker of the road.

5. Drainage system
Normal road construction will always have the roadside drain. It can be earth type or reinforce concrete type. Apart from the road side drain, at any embankment area or slope, it will involve the construction of "toe drain", Bench or berm drain, "foul drain" and also "interceptor drain". For the "interceptor drain"and "foul drain" normally it is designed as concrete cascade drain.

6. Electrical Works
Under  the electrical scope of works, the major works will be the street lighting and also traffic lights (if any depends on the road design and location of the constructed road). 

Project Quality Plan (PQP)

Project Quality Plan is a quality control manual that describe how the quality control of the construction works is going to be executed. Since it is a manual that going to be a reference document all of the construction personnel especially the top management, the content of the manual shall be able to covered all aspect of the quality control task.

As written earlier in the article "Quality Control in Construction works" , the content shall consist of the followings but not limited to the list below.

Section A : General Information
A1. Project information
A2. Project brief,
A3. Project locality and site utilization plan,
A4. Work program
A5. Quality control Organisation Chart
A6. Job Description

Section B: Document Control
B1: Document control Procedure

Section C : Quality Control
C1. Inspection and test plan
C2. Procedure and method of Inspection and testing
C3. Quality assurance and quality control forms and records
C4. Construction work method statement


1. Project Information
Project information and project brief shall describe the general information of the project such as title of the project, total contract value, commencement date and completion date of the project, client name and contact information, consultants name and their contact information, contractor name and contact information, amount of Liquidated and ascertained damages, project duration and amount of minimum allowable progress claim at one time by contractor (if applicable).


2. Project Brief
Shall contain brief description of the project such as the scope of work, quantity of works, standard and requirement to be adhere to for by the project, start and completion date of the project.


3. Project Locality and Site utilization plan
In this section either some narrative work to be included such as description on how to reach the project site, distance from the nearest center of the town and etc. However Most of the Project Quality Plan will insert the Locality plan showing the location of the project site and the site utilization plan which shows the location of important structure for the construction purpose such as site office, site accommodation, working yard, Laboratory, Machinery yard, Storage area and any other structures that deem to be important in order to enable a smooth construction works to take place.


4. Work Program
It is a must in a compiled "Project Quality Plan" to be inserted with a Master Work Program. The purpose of the work program is to help contractor, client and client representative to monitor the progress of the project. Work program shall be established in such a way that it shows all related activities in correct sequence and dependency. It shall include also the Critical path of the project.

5. Project Organisation Chart
Project Organisation chart shall consist of all key personnel that involved in the project. It is always preferable to have an organisation chart base on the Hierarchy Technic.it shall include the post, the name and the contact number of each top key personnel. With the hierarchy technic, indirectly it show the line of communication.


6. Job Description
In Project Quality Plan, all Top Personnel post have to be clearly describe. This is to ensure that person/s who read the PQP Understand the authority of each top personnel engaged for the project. Among top post are Construction manager, Project Manager, Quality Assurance & Quality Control Manager, Engineers and ect.


7. Inspection and Test Plan
Usually being inserted in a tabulated format. Normally will contain the type of work, Type of test to be conducted, Frequency of test, Acceptance Criteria and related inspection and testing form to be use.

8. Procedure and testing method
The procedure shall describe when shall the request of inspection and testing shall be submitted and to whom it shall be address to.The procedure is either in flowchart format or in narrative format.


9.Quality Assurance & Quality control forms and records
All of related forms for the purposed of QAQC shall be included under this section. It's ranging from Site memo, Request for information, Request for inspection, Inspection Check list, Inspection Form, Non conformity Form, Approval Chit , Record of inspection form, Site instruction form and ect.


10. Construction work method statement
Any work method statement for the construction of any structure shall be inserted under this section.

QUALITY CONTROL IN CONSTRUCTION WORKS

A successful construction is a completed project that being delivered to client by contractor which fulfil the contract specification and requirement, the stipulated time frame given as per contract, economic and of course meet the contractor profit margin.

The key to the successful project is lies in the ability of all parties to execute a good project management which requires all parties to have a practical and effective project organisation, effective project planning and tracking, effective procurement team, effective physical construction team and effective quality control team.

As the subject of this article, "Quality control in construction work", there is a few area  that need to be emphasised in order to assure all parties that the quality management is practical and effective. To begin with this quality control, it is always being a good practice to set-up a quality control organisation which need to be documented and understood by all all relevant personnel. in other words, the "Project quality plan".

All thing that required in order to have a good and well plan quality control shall be documented and compile in a manual name as "project quality plan". Among those items are namely as the following list.

1. Project brief,
2. Project locality and site utilisation plan,
3. Work program
4. Quality control Organisation Chart
5. Job Description
6. Inspection and test plan
7. Procedure and method of Inspection and testing
8. Quality assurance and quality control forms
9. Construction method statement

However the content of the "Project Quality Plan" is not limited to those listed items. The "Quality Control" in principal is divided into three stages that is planning stage, Executions and monitoring and the last stage is to analysed the outcome of the plan to ensure the effectiveness.  

Document control in construction management

Document control is part and parcel of the important area for construction personnel to look into. The important of this are to help every party involved in a particular construction work get the right information at the right time and it help protecting interest of every party.

Due to the heavy work load personnel tend to be distracted from performing a proper document control. For example, there is important documentation that already being distributed to respective personnel, however the sender had overlook on the acknowledge receipt of the document. Thus if there will be an issue arise mentioned that the document was not received or the sender have not do the submission yet, then the sender will having problem to proof that he actually had distribute that particular document.

Looking at the scenario above, this can indirectly affecting the smooth progress of the project. The document might be needed for the purposed of material approval, notice, application of extension of time or progress claim or design change. When this issue of document control become so critical it will start affecting the completion of the construction work. Some of the issue might have to be solved at arbitration level.

For the sake of a well manage construction works and meeting the goal of any construction project, document control should not be taken lightly. I have to be part of the construction procedure. Regardless how it supposed to be carried out, whether by incorporate any document control software or conventional method, Document Control Have To Be Executed in such a manner which will have a positive impact on the project or construction works.

construction cost estimation : Flexible pavement

Cost estimation for construction of flexible pavement is very important to enable a smooth construction activities in road constructions. In order to do cost estimation of Flexible pavement for road, there are numbers of important information that we need to know about the flexible pavement. Below are some of the important parameter required to enable the cost estimation.

 

1. Flexible pavement structure, dimension and quantity.

2. Construction material required

3. Construction Methodology or work method statement

4. Construction work duration 



 

General flexible pavement structure

(credit to Kontraktor Malaysia Facebook)

Construction Material for flexible pavement.

1. Suitable soil (well compacted) for sub-grade
2. Down Crusher Run ( Crush and well Graded Granite stone) for Flexible pavement Sub-base and base course
3. Prime Coat
4. Asphaltic concrete Binder Course (ACB)
5. Tack coat
6. Asphaltic Concrete Wearing Course (ACW)





Estimating construction rate per unit of work

Competitive tendered price is one of the greatest factor to win a construction project. However in any business, one of the main factor is to make money. This is true and also applied to construction industry. Therefore winning a project is just a small portion of construction business but be able to secure and deliver projects within the budget is the main agenda of construction business.


HOW TO ACCOMPLISHED THAT TARGET???????


The answer is knowing how to estimate and doing the breakdown of the BUILT-UP RATE PER UNIT OF WORK.


Building the rate is in theoretically knowing the cost of every single item or component that involved in order to deliver the end product. In general these are some of the item that need to be include while estimating rate per unit work or product.


(1). Cost of the construction material
(2). Cost of the Logistic or transportation
(3). Labor cost
(4). Machinery cost
(5). Allow cost for wastage of material
(6). PROFIT MARGIN


Each of the item, from item no. (1) to item no. (5) need some simple calculation and have to be present into "per unit rate". It is then sum-up to create the cost of construction of a unit product.The next procedure is to apply item no.(6) into the sum-up cost.


For example if the cost of construction of a unit product is "W" and targeted profit margin is "Y%", the profit will be "W" X "Y%". let say that the outcome of this calculation is "Z". Hence the built-Up rate is the sum of "W" + "Z"


Calculation:
Item (1) + (2) + (3) + (4) + (5) = W
Profit Margin = Y %
Profit = W x Y% =  Z
Built-Up rate per unit product = W + Z


Built-up rate offered MUST inclusive of PROFIT and Construction Cost.

Traffic Management in road construction

Traffic management is part and partial of road construction that must be look into. Even though it do not contribute to any of the road construction it self but it does  affect the progress of the work. Traffic management become very significant if the construction site is within the existing road. As we all know existing road is road that already open to public.Thus there will be moving vehicle every now and then. We certainly do not want to see any accident occur during construction period which involve our site. Therefore a safe and practical traffic management plan must be in place.

Some of the normal measures and tools that we applied during construction work are:-

1. Provide flagmen at both end of our construction site and equip them with and Personal Protective equipment and communication tools, such as walkie talkie to enable the to guide the existing traffic efficiently.

2. Erecting some warning sign along the existing road to inform public in advance before they reach the construction area.

3. Provide detour sign if the existing traffic need to be redirect into our temporary road.

4. Erect safety barrier along the construction site to prevent existing traffic entry into our work place

5. Install "blinker" before and along the construction site to provide warning sign that public user of the existing road is approaching construction site or they are driving just adjacent to the construction site.

6. Publish construction work notice on newspapers or main stream media to alert public or road user on the coming or ongoing construction work along the road.

7. Periodic monitoring and maintain all safety and warning sign that had been installed to ensure that it is in good and practical condition.

All of the above but not limited to the listed planed safety measures in this article shall follow the minimum standard of traffic management plan required by the authority.

Traffic Management can save life, time and money.

7 important factor affecting Roadworks cost estimation

7 important item that must be consider while doing cost estimation for road construction.

1. Cost of the construction material needed to construct a road.
2. Delivery cost for the construction material.
3. Machinery and labour cost involve during construction period.
4. material wastage, labour and machine inefficiency during construction. 
5. Increase of the price of construction material, Labour and machine in the near future.
6. indirect cost such as Insurance premium, material handling cost, safety and others.
7. profit margin.

Construction Cost Estimation.

Construction cost estimate is not only about cost of the construction materials, wages machineries, construction period and profit margin. There are some more factor that need to be consider and inserted. Some of the items which was spell out inside the preliminaries and generally of the bill of quantities in the tender document should not be taken lightly.

construction cost estimation software

Part of the item that was usually inserted in by quantity surveyor are, insurances, Government Levy, As-built drawings, quality assurance and quality control work. Very often that I came across tenderer that price those item that is not reasonable, especially as-built drawings and quality assurance and quality control works. It was price well below the the actual or market rate. Building As-built drawings for instant, very often that it being price at a range of  5,000-10,000 (currency). Just imagine, for a complete and functional building, there are five (5) major components to make it fully function. The five major components are Civil works, Structural works, Architectural works, electrical works and mechanical works. With these five major works, means contractor need to produce five different set of as-built drawings. How much will each of this As-Built drawing will cost contractor in order for them to produce sets of proper As-built drawings ????. With the pricing range from 5,000 to 10,000, is it possible???



That is only part of the construction cost estimate which need to be consider. How about the environment monitoring, charges by council or authority, occupation safety and health, third party liability and may more?
Hence construction cost estimate shall be priced accordingly to avoid any cash flow difficulties once your are awarded with a project. 

Construction work and weather

SAFETY AND HEALTH FOR ENGINEERS

Construction site is a place where most of the works are performed at an open space or out-door. When we mentioned open space or out -door, all of the construction personnel that involved in construction activities are subject to weather condition. As every construction personnel know, when working out-door, each and every one of us will always want a good weather, especially moderate temperature on the day. In other words that day it is not a sunny day neither do it rainy day.

Regardless the weather condition, each of the situation having its own hazard towards health.

Below are some of the situation, Hazard and suggestion on how to manage the situation.

Weather Condition            Hazard                                         Management   

Raining                             Flu, Fever, Headache                   Do not work in rain.

Drizzling                              Flu, Fever,Slippery,                        Provide sheds ( if applicable) or/and 

                                         Fall from high place                      Avoid working at high location or/and

                                                                                            provide suitable PPE or

                                                                                            Do not work if it is drizzling

Strong Wind / Storm        Falling object,                               Do not carry out any activities below the 

                                                                                          group that working at higher location.

                                       Collapsed of Scaffolding               Evacuate or do not stay on scaffolding                                                                                                            platform during strong wind/storm.

Hot Weather                   Fainted and fall from high place          Worker rotation system,

                                     Heat stroke/Heat stress                     Provide Shades ( if applicable),

                                                                                             Ensure or provide drinks for workers

                                                                                             Provide and ensure the usage of suitable PPE

                                

WORK PROGRAM AND THE S CURVE

Every construction project will need a well documented WORK PROGRAM or Work schedule. It is as a guide for the construction players on When and how can they achieve the target Completion date. For Planners they are well verse with Work Program. There is lots of computer aided program that can be utilised to enable them to come out with a professional look of a work program. Some of the computer aided program are, Microsoft Project, Primavera, Esteem and may more. The most common are Primavera and Microsoft Project. For a small scale project, work program even can be produce by using Microsoft excel or Office.org.

Most of the work program software are designed in such a way that it can also produce the "S-CURVE"."S-Curve" is a graphical presentation which showing informations such as "Schedule S-Curve", "Actual S-Curve", dates, Percentage of work and may more. Normally this is a method that commonly used to show the overall progress of a project. On the S-Curve graph, we will see what is the value (either in terms of dollar and cents or percentage) of previous work achieve, target value, and progress on the month of reporting.

S-Curve and Work program are both related. Changes to Work Program might affect the S-Curve. S-Curve in actual fact is derive from the work program it self. Without work program, people can still produce S-Curve but the question is, is it tally with what we planned to do?

To those who are new on the planning work, Work Program, once it being amended, it might affecting informations which you want to show on your S-curve.

Usage of Request for information

What is Request for Information (RFI) in construction work? In construction works Request for information is a method that normally being applied at construction site to obtained certain information with regards to works issues. It is ranging from the construction drawings, site condition and may others site matters. Site Manager, Site supervisor, site engineer or any site technical assistant are among the common personnel that have been using the "Request For Information (RFI)" method or form as a way of communication to officially obtained any information which will affecting the construction works.

                                                              

This RFI is commonly being issued out by contractor to the consultant or client site representative once there is any doubts arise from unclear instruction, specifications, drawings or plans or even the locality of the proposed structure. When contractor write and issue out a  "Request for information", in actual fact, they already put it on record that they are having an construction related issue which might hindered them from starting the construction for certain work or structure. As such it is a proof that they already highlighting something which might cause delay in construction progress, extra  construction cost, safety issue, site conditions or it might be only a request to confirm the validity of a verbal instruction, construction drawings or plans that had given to them unofficially. 

                                                             

Client site representative shall not take the "request for information" lightly since it having its legal value. In some cases, client site representative might not be in the position to provide such information to the contractor site personnel. If such situation occurred, with the issuance of "request for information" by contractor site representative, they then can convey or redirect the matter to their respective department or person in-charge to get the valid response or answer.

In construction, the line of communication when using the "Request for information" is between contractor site personnel and client site representative. By looking to those two parties we can say that the usage of "Request for information" Form is mostly at construction site level. 

If we notice in the above paragraph, the words "mostly" was used, this is merely because "Request for Information" also sometimes being used between headquarters and site as an internal communication in the same organisation. However the usage of "Request for information is not limited only to those application but it can be customised to suit the needs of an organisation.

Construction project stages

Construction is not about physically constructing a structure only but lot of other things involve. Construction in-whole are involving a few stages. Those stages start with setting goal by the owner (consultant/contractor's client) then followed by designing stage. Once the designers completed their design, they must first get approval from the client prior to the call for tender. Designer have to get their design as closed as they can as what had been describe by their client. This is important as to minimised any interruption during construction period due to design change. It is also important for the client in order not to burst their allocated budget for the whole project.

Upon approval of their design then consultants can proceed with the tender stage. This can be done via open tender such as through media advertisement. However some might one to call for invited tender. Invited tender is a bidding process where consultant will look for list of trusted, well reputable and competent contractor to submit their tender price for the purposed construction work.

After submission tender price, together with the client consultant, have to evaluate and come to a conclusion to whom must they award the contract. Another important part of this process is to counter check if client budget is enough. If the price they get burst their budget, the client might want to reduce the scope of work or call for another round of tender. Usually this is termed as re-tender process.

                                                    

Next before the construction can really start, upon deciding who is the contractor that can do the construction work, client will send an official "Letter of Intent" or most of the time, Client will  issue "Letter of Acceptance" or "Letter of Award". Once the official letter was sent out to the winner of the tender, consultant then need to prepare the contract document for both parties to sign.

Right after the signing process, by procedure wise, only then the awarded contractor can proceed with their physical construction work. While dealing with the construction of the structure, it is vital for every parties to keep their record of everything or important event as accurate, complete and safe as they can. This is because  those entire documents might have legal value in it. Among the records are letter of Award, Construction site diary, construction test and inspection approval, design change record, instruction from the client, records of construction meetings (site meeting, technical meeting and others important meeting or discussion) and may more.

Another important document that have to be kept properly and can be access by all parties involve is the "Master Work Program". This will show, when contractor going to start a certain work and when will they finished. Other than that, by having this master work program, client, consultant and contractor can monitor their construction health. Construction health is whether the construction work is ahead of schedule, on time or delayed. If the progress of the construction work shows delay, this is where all parties need to know why, and how to speed-up the progress or client might need to revised the construction completion date by granting Extension of Time base on valid reason as mentioned in the contract to the contractor. However if the records shows that reasons behind the delay is due to contractor negligence, client can by virtue of the signed contract and by any applicable law, penalised the contractor. Commonly happened is contractor being slap with the "Liquidated and Ascertained Damages (L&AD)" as allow in the contract.

                                                             

Upon completion of all of the construction scope of work and if the client satisfied with the end product, Client then will issue a letter of completion to contractor. This letter normally termed as "Certificate of Practical completion (CPC)". As mentioned earlier, "construction in whole involving a few stages", then bare in-mind, the issuance of CPC does not meant that the whole construction is over. Upon issuance of the CPC, another stage that will follow is the "post-construction" stage. This is a stage where all constructed structure being put into real test. The in-operation of the structure and all other components reassemble a complete structure will reveal all defects to the structure have. Defects in construction simply mean works that is done but does not functioning well. When this happened, client together with their consultant need to identify if is a defect due to contractor works or not. If it the answer is "yes", then client can request the contractor to rectify the defects as long as the defect occurred within the defect liability period. Inspection on the defect must be performed in the present of client, consultant and contractor and list of defects must be served officially to the contractor.

When the defect liability period is over, client has to close the construction account which normally termed as "closing of project account". In this stage client will released whatever money due to their contractor and consultants or recouped back whatever amount due to them from the contractor or consultants.

The next and final stage of the whole construction project is the post mortem by client them self. By performing this stage, client can evaluate, in overall, the cost, the construction period, functionality of the project and whether or not the project achieved their earlier goal. The result of the post-mortem will provide a better understanding and can be incorporated into the new project that they wish or planned to do.

Construction and global warming

Construction is one of the industries that contribute to global warming. Why is so? . Let we take a look into what is global warming.

Global warming in actual fact is due to green house effect. Green house effect happened because there increased in greenhouse gases(GHG) concentration in our atmosphere. Some of the green house gases are Carbon dioxide (CO2), Nitrous oxide or Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), Ozone(O3), Methane(CH4) and other harmful gases which have a capability to trap heat from being radiated out from our atmosphere. Some of this green house gases have the ability to exist in our atmosphere more that 100 years.

So how does our construction industries become one of the contributor to this global issue? Before we answer this question, it is best to know activities that produce these greenhouse gases(GHG). CO2 usually being produce as one of the end product from the burning of fossil fuel, where as CFC or to be more accurate Tetrachloroethene is widely used as dry cleaning agent. May be some of the cleaning agent that we used contained CFC and we applied it in our construction method.

Another cause for the increase of CO2 in our atmosphere is deforestation. As we know,  plant need CO2 to enable them to generate their food. Hence by reducing the number of plants through deforestation activities will reduce the process of carbon sink. Construction industries especially the development of area for habitation involved land clearing(Deforestation) in a big scale.

Know, how do we relate this global warming issue with our construction industries? First what are some of the activities that contribute to the GHG? As mention earlier, Burning of fossil fuels and deforestation playing a significant role in increasing the CO2 concentration in our atmosphere. Years ago,  before laws and regulation was implemented due to the alarming issue of this global warming, Construction industries tend to cleared their debris by method of open burning. It might be the cheapest solution to cleared up all the debris compare to utilised the service from any waste treatment agency which having expertise in dealing with the controlled burning technology. However method of uncontrolled open burning can cause even more CO2 being released into our atmosphere. Therefore in construction industries this method must not being used as a way of debris disposal. Further to this, the other impact to the owner of the construction project is being at risk of being penalised for the breach of laws and regulation.


Related act.

• Clean Air Act by U.S Environmental Protection Agency.
• The Pollution Prevention and Control (Industries Emissions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2013 (Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland)
• Environmental Quality Act 1974 (ACT127) & subsidiary legislation.
• The California Environmental Quality Act