WHAT HAPPENED·? ILLUSTRATIVE COMPOSITE The subcontract ran to 87 pages. The project engineer managing the package had read the scope schedule and the programme. He had not read the payment terms, the retention provisions, the variation mechanism, the notice requirements, or the set-off clause. A variation was needed in month four. He instructed it verbally, on site, and the subcontractor did the work. When the account came in, the main contractor's QS found the subcontract re

One moves the completion date. The other erodes productivity without ever touching it. Most claims fail because the two get argued as if they were the same thing, with the same evidence. WHAT HAPPENED · ILLUSTRATIVE COMPOSITE A contractor finishes on the certified completion date. There was no need for an extension – the critical path was never really under threat. But three trades spent four months working out of sequence around a design change, re-mobilising twice and car

WHAT HAPPENED · ILLUSTRATIVE COMPOSITE The building is finished. The client’s staff are moving furniture in. The contractor asks for the certificate and is told it will follow once the snagging list is closed—forty items, none of which stops anybody using the building. Six weeks pass, and Liquidated damages continue to accrue at the contracted rate because, on paper, the works are not complete. Retention stays where it is. The defects period has not started, so its expiry d

WHAT HAPPENED · ILLUSTRATIVE COMPOSITE The mobilisation on a ₦2.8 billion teaching hospital block on the FIDIC Red Book went well. The site was fenced by the end of week two, the first concrete was poured inside month one, and the first monthly report said the project was in good health. On any measure a project team would recognise, it was. In month three the setting-out was found to be wrong. The survey control the Employer had issued placed the building line roughly 400

TWO NUMBERS FEEL LIKE CONTROL. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME MEASUREMENT. WHAT MOST SITES TRACK Percentage complete, cash certified, calendar days used None of these, alone, says whether the job is in trouble WHAT THE THREE NUMBERS TRACK Planned Value, Earned Value and Actual Cost — same units, same date, compared Together they say how much trouble, and where WHAT HAPPENED: ILLUSTRATIVE COMPOSITE A contractor reports a residential block at 60 per cent complete at month nine of a fif

What actually happened to prices A note on the numbers. The figures below are market and survey data rather than an official construction cost index, and are cited as such. Nigeria has no widely published construction-specific index of the kind FIDIC’s adjustment formula assumes, which is itself part of the problem this article describes. Cement. A Lagos market survey conducted by Nairametrics in May 2024 put the average price of cement at ₦4,300 per bag in May 2023, rising t

WHAT HAPPENED · ILLUSTRATIVE COMPOSITE The contractor submitted a detailed Gantt chart at contract award showing every trade, every milestone, and a completion date of 24 October. The employer's team reviewed it, commented on it, and wrote back that they were content with it. Three months later the programme had slipped four weeks. The employer's project manager escalated, citing the accepted programme as a contractual commitment the contractor had broken. The contractor's

PROCUREMENT · TENDER STRATEGY · COMMERCIAL AWARENESS Why the Cheapest Tender Could Cost the Most The lowest price wins the award. Six months into the project, the employer understands why no one else submitted that price. Price-only procurement is one of the most expensive decisions a client can make. Projects Associates · Contract Administration Desk · 18 August 2026 +31% final payments vs the winner's own bid 45.6% average cost overrun Nigerian studies s.33 Lowest e

How the Awareness–Pause–Reframe discipline lifts staff development, competency building and market positioning in a growing professional-services firm. Professional firms compete on judgement. For a practice like Projects Associates, the quality of every deliverable — a cost plan, a claim, an expert report, a sustainability strategy — rests on how its people think under pressure. Most development spend targets technical knowledge and software, yet the hardest problems are beh

A design coordination problem appeared early, but nobody raised it formally. Weeks became months. Eventually, it delayed the entire project. A single notice could have prevented all of it. Read the article for more ...

Introduction: Infrastructure Under Geopolitical Stress Infrastructure development in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has historically operated within a complex interplay of geopolitics, energy economics, and global supply chains. Yet the 2026 escalation involving Iran, the GCC states, the United States, and Israel has introduced a new and acute level of contractual uncertainty. The geopolitical landscape has shifted from the "just-in-time" efficiency of the early 2020s to

1. Core Thesis Flyvbjerg advances a fundamentally counterintuitive but empirically grounded proposition: large-scale infrastructure projects are not merely prone to failure—they are systematically selected in ways that favour failure. This phenomenon arises from structural distortions embedded within planning, appraisal, and approval processes. Projects that appear most attractive at the decision stage—characterised by low estimated costs and high projected benefits—are frequ

According to Beer, there are three main elements which are involved with influencing any self-organising system in the Viable System...

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing construction consulting in incredible ways. It processes data quickly, offering insights that...

Introduction The admissibility of written or spoken remarks made before or concurrently with a written contract is governed by the legal...

The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is undergoing a significant transformation. With the advent of digital...

Sustainability managers play a crucial role in ensuring that infrastructure projects align with environmental, social, and economic...

In today's dynamic business landscape, navigating through economic uncertainties, such as inflation and economic depressions, presents a...

In today's ever-evolving global landscape, Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs) play a crucial role in shaping the future of...