There is a plethora of excellent books covering the subject of this particular book but many are written in an impractical way. The author has considerable planning experience in the construction industry and this greatly assists the achievement of his expressed aim of writing a ‘comprehensive, easy to understand, practical and down to earth reference book for those involved in the preparation and assessment of extensions of time and prolongation claims’.
The author also attempts to tackle some of the more thorny issues including concurrency and who owns the float, offering pragmatic advice in his considerations.
This book is written from a UK perspective and offers a useful comparison of the two main contracts used as the basis throughout, which are the NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract and the JCT 2005. The stark differences in the approach to such matters in both contracts are helpfully highlighted. The Delay and Disruption Protocol (the ‘protocol’) of the Society of Construction Law (SCL) is also helpfully featured throughout.
The book is arranged in six parts. Part I, the introduction, covers general provisions relating to extensions of time, delay claims and the SCL protocol. Part II deals with programmes and record keeping, focusing on the fundamental matter of the project programme. In Part III there is consideration of the relevant time-related clauses in the JCT and NEC contracts, together with case law concerning time-related issues. The précis of key cases up to the date of this publication is particularly useful. Part IV covers those thorny issues mentioned previously and the author helpfully gives his opinion on float, concurrency, acceleration and time at large. Part V deals with extensions of time, giving details of the various extension of time/delay analysis techniques along with some worked examples. The final section, Part VI, gives details of the claim heads for a prolongation claim (and time-related costs), followed by some worked examples.
This is an easy to read, concise and very useful book on both extensions of time and prolongation claims. The author successfully blends together case law, his experience, the protocol and some practical advice against the backdrop of the two quite different standard UK construction contracts of NEC and JCT.
