Phased Construction Cost Consultant | Sequencing

We act as an independent quantity surveyor on phased schemes.

Conventional cost planning measures what gets built. On a phased scheme that is only half the exercise, because two projects with identical bills of quantities can differ materially in outturn purely on sequence. Working in six small areas rather than one large one, returning to a completed zone, waiting for a possession, or maintaining a live route through the site all cost money that appears nowhere in the measured work.

Preliminaries, temporary works and standing time therefore dominate. Those are the items conventional cost planning captures least well, usually as a percentage inherited from a previous job with a different logistics problem.

They also produce the most expensive arguments. Disruption is difficult to prove and equally difficult to disprove, so a disruption claim tends to be settled on the strength of the records rather than on the strength of the entitlement.

01

Time related preliminaries taken as a percentage

An entitlement answer priced in competition

Site management, welfare, plant hire, scaffold, security and insurance run against the programme rather than against the work. Extend the programme by a phase and these continue whether trades are productive or not.

What we do

Preliminaries are built from the programme, not from the works total. Time related items are extended over the actual duration, fixed items are taken once, and the split between sections is set at tender. A delay to one section then has an answer that was priced in competition rather than negotiated afterwards.

02

Temporary works redesigned mid contract

Resequencing valued when it happens

Hoardings, propping, temporary roofs, protection to occupied areas, temporary services and diversions that let one part of a site operate while another is rebuilt. When the sequence moves, most of this is designed again.

What we do

Temporary works are priced against the assumed sequence, and the sequence we have assumed is written on the face of the cost plan. When it changes, the change is valued as a change, at the moment it is agreed, even where the measured quantities do not move. That single habit removes most disruption claims before they form.

03

Access constraints described but not owned

Both sides pricing the same risk

Shared access, restricted delivery windows, crane oversail agreements, road closures and the storage that does not exist. Tender documents usually list these as requirements without saying which party carries the consequence of failing to deliver them.

What we do

Possession, access and shutdown obligations are set out explicitly, with the owner of each named. Where the contractor chooses the method, the contractor carries it. Wherever the client controls a window, the client carries it. Both parties then price the same thing, which is the only way a tender comparison means anything.

04

Standing time nobody recorded

Evidence that exists before you need it

Labour and plant held while a possession is unavailable, and productivity lost to working in small parcels. The least documented and most disputed category on any phased job, and the one settled on records rather than on entitlement.

What we do

A records protocol runs from week one: labour allocation, area availability, possession dates and instruction dates captured weekly. Contemporaneous records carry weight in either direction. Analysis assembled after the event from a programme carries very little, which is why the protocol matters more than the eventual argument.

1

Define the sections before tender

Each section needs its own description, its own date and its own value for liquidated damages. Sections invented after the contract is signed are agreed with a contractor who has no reason to agree cheaply.

2

Price preliminaries section by section

A single preliminaries total cannot be apportioned fairly once one section is delayed and another is not. Split at tender, the entitlement question has an answer that was priced in competition.

3

Fix the possession and access regime

What the contractor gets, when, and what happens when a possession is late. Where the client controls access, the client carries the consequence, and that consequence should be understood before it is triggered.

4

Record productivity from day one

Disruption is proved by contemporaneous records or it is not proved at all. Labour allocation, area availability and possession dates recorded weekly are worth more than any retrospective analysis.

01

Sectional completion and liquidated damages

A mechanism that fails quietly if the values are wrong

Sectional completion only works where each section has a genuine pre-estimate of loss behind its damages figure. Where one figure is applied across every section regardless of what that section actually earns, the mechanism becomes vulnerable, and a contractor who is advised well will say so.

The other common failure is partial possession used as a substitute for sectional completion. It releases the contractor from part of the works without the commercial protections that sectional completion carries, and it is frequently agreed on site by somebody who needs a unit open rather than by somebody reading the contract.

Tendering and procurement Scenario: contract interpretation

02

Working around an operational site

The client is also the constraint

Where a building stays partly occupied, the occupier sets the working hours, the noise limits, the routes and the shutdown windows. Each of those is a cost, and each is usually described in the tender documents as a requirement rather than priced as a restriction.

The commercial risk sits with whoever controls the constraint. If the client cannot deliver a promised shutdown window, the client pays for the consequence. Setting out those obligations precisely at tender stage protects both parties, because it tells the contractor what to price and tells the client what to deliver.

Refurbishment and reuse

03

Cash flow tied to handover dates

When sales or letting fund the next phase

On a self funding phased scheme, receipts from one phase pay for the next. A slipped handover is therefore not only a damages question, it is a funding question, and the two have different remedies and different timescales.

Cash flow forecasts on these schemes are produced against the sectional programme and reforecast every month, with the funding consequence of a slipped section shown rather than described. Where a facility is involved, the drawdown profile has to match the section dates, not the overall completion date.

Development monitoring surveying What we do for the lender side

04

Extension of time and the cost that follows it

Two separate questions, routinely merged

Entitlement to time and entitlement to money are decided under different provisions and on different evidence. A phased scheme generates more of both, because a delay to one section can disrupt another without delaying it, and disruption without delay recovers differently.

Awarding time and settling the associated cost as a single negotiated figure is common and usually favours whoever is under less pressure. Keeping them separate, each assessed on its own evidence, is slower in the moment and considerably cheaper at the final account.

Cost control and variations Scenario: variation claim exposure

05

Resequencing during the works

A change nobody issues as a variation

Sequences change. A section is brought forward for a tenant, a possession is deferred, a phase is split. The measured work may be identical, so no variation is issued, and the cost consequence surfaces months later as a disruption claim supported by whatever records happen to exist.

Resequencing should be treated as a change at the moment it is agreed, valued against the priced programme and recorded, even where the quantities do not move. That is the single most effective piece of cost control available on a phased job.

Cost control and variations Final accounts and disputes

01
Cost plans priced against the sequence, with the assumed programme stated on the document
02
Preliminaries built from time, access and logistics rather than taken as a percentage
03
Section definitions, dates and damages values prepared before the scheme goes to tender
04
Tender documentation setting out possession, access and client obligations explicitly
05
Cash flow reforecast monthly against the sectional programme and the funding structure
06
A records protocol for productivity, possessions and resequencing, running from week one

How should preliminaries be priced on a phased job?

Against the programme rather than against the works total. Time related items are extended over the actual duration, fixed items are taken once, and the split between sections is set at tender so that a delay to one section has an answer that was priced in competition rather than negotiated afterwards.

Is sectional completion always better than partial possession?

Where the handover sequence is known before the contract is let, yes, because sectional completion carries damages, insurance and defects provisions for each section. Partial possession is a remedy for a situation that was not planned for, and it releases the contractor from part of the works without those protections.

How do we defend a disruption claim?

With contemporaneous records, and largely with nothing else. Labour allocation sheets, area availability, possession dates, instruction dates and progress records made at the time carry weight. Retrospective analysis built from a programme after the event carries very little, in either direction.

Can the cost plan be produced before the programme exists?

It can, provided the sequence we have assumed is written on the face of it with a value attached. On a phased scheme that assumption is often worth more than the rates, because it is the thing most likely to change and the thing that moves the number most when it does.

Who should hold the logistics risk on a constrained site?

Whoever controls the constraint. Where the contractor chooses the method, the contractor carries the consequence of that choice. In cases where the client controls access, a possession or a shutdown window, the client carries the consequence of failing to deliver it. Problems arise where the documents describe the constraint without saying who owns it, because both parties then price on the assumption that the other one did.

Does phasing always cost more than building in one go?

On construction cost, usually yes, because preliminaries run longer and productivity falls. Equally, on the development as a whole, frequently no, because earlier handovers bring revenue forward and reduce peak funding. The comparison only means something when both are priced on the same basis, including the finance cost, rather than construction cost against construction cost.

Do you act on schemes that are already in delay?

Yes. The first step is establishing what the records actually support, which is usually less than either party believes. Where the position is weak we say so early, because a claim pursued past the point the evidence supports costs more than the entitlement it was chasing.