World’s first Time Management Contract for Complex Projects published by the CIOB

After two years in the making the Chartered Institute of Building has published the world’s first contract specifically aimed at the management of time in complex construction and engineering projects. It is also the first standard form contract to cater for Building Information Modelling (BIM) and the future of collaborative design.

Launched on 23 April, the Complex Projects Contract 2013 (CPC2013) focuses on managing time to ensure projects are delivered to specification on budget and without delays. Unlike existing contracts, which target failure through only through persuasion and financial compensation for failure, CPC2013 provides the procedures to enable parties to manage time (and cost) risk events in a modern and proactive fashion.

Current standard forms of contract do not encourage, and in some cases actually inhibit, the competent management of time making them unsuitable for controlling the risk of time and cost escalation on complex projects. According to CIOB research, less than 20% of complex building projects were completed on time, 60% were completed more than 4 months late, and 55% more than 6 months late.

Speaking about the contract, Keith Pickavance, a Past President of the CIOB and lead author of CPC2013 said: “This is a modern day contract designed for the data age. It underlines and meets the need for a collaborative and competent approach to how risks are managed utilising transparent systems of data. It can be used with, or without, Building Information Modelling and has been drafted to work in any country and legal jurisdiction around the world. “The causes and consequences of delay are the single most common reason for uncontrolled loss and cost escalation in complex building and engineering projects, where the design is produced by the employer or contractor.”

The contract is part of the CIOB’s agenda to establish a culture of managing time in construction. In 2011 the Institute published the ‘CIOB Guide to Good Practice in the Management of Time in Complex Projects’ which was followed by the CIOB Project Time Management Qualification in 2012.

This is not the first time the CIOB has been involved in developing forms of contract. Back in 1871 the Institute with RIBA published the very first standard form of construction contract.