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Chapter 7
Contractual matters
Traditionally, the employer or owner executes a contract by engaging a
consulting engineer to do the design work, preparing the tender documents, and generally also supervising the works during construction. After
selecting a contractor, he would normally work under a direct contract for
the employer. In this role, he is responsible for the execution of the works
according to the contract conditions and specifications, and to instructions
of the engineer who supervises the works.
In other contract forms, such as BOT (build, operate, transfer) contracts,
the traditional role of the engineer has changed. The employer is often a
group of private companies that are willing to finance a specific project on
behalf of the government. Following a bidding procedure, it would order
a contractor or joint venture of different contractors to realize the project, often on a turnkey basis, according to their own design which would
normally be subcontracted to an engineer who might also supervise the
construction works. It is quite obvious that there has been a change in
the responsibilities of the engineer and particularly the key risk of the
employer, that is, the responsibility for unexpected, unknown, and unforeseen ground conditions.
Traditionally, the engineer, working directly for the employer, would
provide the contractor also with the results of the geotechnical investigations and would base his design on his own interpretation of these findings,
which will also direct any contractor’s own design work. Accordingly, it
is the risk of the employer and his engineer if a substantial change of the
geological conditions requires adaptations of the design or the work procedure. In these circumstances, it is the contractor’s responsibility to notify
the engineer of these changed conditions and, ultimately, the employer
would have to reimburse the contractor for any additional work resulting from these changes. This principle should also apply if a contract was
executed on a lump-sum basis with warranted dimensions and properties.
Where BOT contracts are concerned the employer’s risk for the geotechnical conditions is passed on to the contracting consortium, which has to
carry out all necessary investigations for the design and execution of the
works and which employs therefore its own engineer.
DOI: 10.1201/9781315372341-7
Chapter 7
Contractual matters
Traditionally, the employer or owner executes a contract by engaging a
consulting engineer to do the design work, preparing the tender documents, and generally also supervising the works during construction. After
selecting a contractor, he would normally work under a direct contract for
the employer. In this role, he is responsible for the execution of the works
according to the contract conditions and specifications, and to instructions
of the engineer who supervises the works.
In other contract forms, such as BOT (build, operate, transfer) contracts,
the traditional role of the engineer has changed. The employer is often a
group of private companies that are willing to finance a specific project on
behalf of the government. Following a bidding procedure, it would order
a contractor or joint venture of different contractors to realize the project, often on a turnkey basis, according to their own design which would
normally be subcontracted to an engineer who might also supervise the
construction works. It is quite obvious that there has been a change in
the responsibilities of the engineer and particularly the key risk of the
employer, that is, the responsibility for unexpected, unknown, and unforeseen ground conditions.
Traditionally, the engineer, working directly for the employer, would
provide the contractor also with the results of the geotechnical investigations and would base his design on his own interpretation of these findings,
which will also direct any contractor’s own design work. Accordingly, it
is the risk of the employer and his engineer if a substantial change of the
geological conditions requires adaptations of the design or the work procedure. In these circumstances, it is the contractor’s responsibility to notify
the engineer of these changed conditions and, ultimately, the employer
would have to reimburse the contractor for any additional work resulting from these changes. This principle should also apply if a contract was
executed on a lump-sum basis with warranted dimensions and properties.
Where BOT contracts are concerned the employer’s risk for the geotechnical conditions is passed on to the contracting consortium, which has to
carry out all necessary investigations for the design and execution of the
works and which employs therefore its own engineer.
DOI: 10.1201/9781315372341-7