Is the UAE Civil Code enough?
by Jeremy Cama
As the debate over the effectiveness of local procurement continues, Jeremy Cama, partner, Berrymans Lace Mawer, outlines some of the stumbling blocks still faced by the industry. …
Construction Law
PMP Hints
Manage Metrics – Large Projects – Beginning of the Project
Large Projects – Beginning of the Project
Large projects should definitely be capturing metrics that will provide information on the quality of the deliverables and the processes used to create the deliverables. The following process can be used to come up with the appropriate metrics on the project. This process will result in the creation of a Project Scorecard. …
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PMP Hints
Responsibility Matrix
In a large project, there may be many people that have some role in the creation and approval of project deliverables. Sometimes this is pretty straightforward, such as one person writing a document and one person approving it. In other cases, there may be many people who have a hand in the creation and others that need to have varying levels of approval.
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Construction Industry
Construction knowledge is a must for all insurers
by Terry Dunning
Ask any construction professional where the world’s most exciting projects are being built, and it would be surprising to hear an answer other than the Middle East.
Descriptions of the projects often include a string of superlatives and involve construction techniques at the forefront of technology. …
Construction knowledge is a must for all insurersRead More »
PMP Hints
Create a Short-Term Schedule to Guide the Definition and Planning Processes
The process of creating the Project Charter, schedule and budget may take a long time and may be very complicated. Therefore, the work should not be left unorganized, for the same reasons that you are building the schedule for the project to begin with. …
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Contract Administration
Re-thinking Contract Price in the UAE
The UAE construction industry is experiencing a growing yet significant debate, driven by the desire of Employers to successfully procure and deliver projects through alternative contractual pricing mechanisms. …
Contract Administration
The ins and outs of ‘suspension of the works’ under construction contracts
by Paul Taylor
Having considered the process of termination of construction contracts, the equally important subject of suspension of the works on a construction project should also be considered. …
The ins and outs of ‘suspension of the works’ under construction contractsRead More »
Procurement Management, Project Management
Choosing procurement type key to success
Whichever procurement type is adopted by the contracting parties it is essential to bear in mind both the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy so that informed decisions can be made prior to project commencement, warns JOANNE EMERSON. …
PMP Hints
Resolve Issues as Soon As Possible
The definition of an issue is that it is a problem that will be detrimental to the success of the project and cannot be totally resolved by the project team. That definition leads you to understand that issues must be addressed quickly. …
Contract Administration
Managing the risk of delay in projects
Following on from the article on delay analysis in last month’s edition of Gulf Construction, ADAM WEBSTER explains how to manage the risk of delay through proper contractual and practical management in the region’s fast-track construction industry. …
Contract Administration
Can a Contractor Obtain Compensation for a Radical Increase in its Costs if a Construction Contract Contains No Price Escalation Clause?
Christopher R. Seppälä, Elizabeth Lefebvre-Gross
Faced with a drastic increase in the cost of commodities—for example, of steel, or oil—that undermines the economic assumptions of a construction contract, lawyers trained in the common law may believe that, if the contract has no price-escalation clause, the only relief from the contract available is termination on the grounds of frustration, impossibility, or impracticability. In fact, outside the common law countries, it may be possible to obtain other relief, including an increase in the contract price, to take into account changed circumstances after a contract has been signed. Several examples are provided below. …
Civil Engineering
Sheet piles offer an economical solution
by Dhairya Narayan Jha
Steel sheet piles are long structural sections with interlocks which form a continuous retaining wall. To retain soil or water in most cases, sheet piles have been used for all kinds of temporary and permanent retaining structures being extensively used for quay walls, cofferdams, tunnels, underground parkings, shoring for foundation pits, sewerage and drainage works, micro tunnelling, to name a few. …