Civil Engineering Practices Quality & Legislation Assignment ONE Sem One 2024

Curtin University Civil Engineering

CSEN4003: Civil Engineering Practices Quality & Legislation
Assignment ONE: Contractual Arrangements
Submission: on-or-before 26th April 2024, via Turnitin*
*tba.

General: Assignment One: Contractual Arrangements (contributes 25% of unit-mark)

This group project involves reflection upon a project scenario, with reference to relevant/stated
contractual legislation/ general-conditions-of-contract-GCCs & formulating suitable responses.

Groups: Teams-of-3 shall seek equitable contribution; members are responsible for activities distribution.
peer assessment, upon request, may be used to facilitate weighted contribution.

Task Teams to discuss/prepare/submit a structured report to address scenario queries.

Activities: refer to scenario and related questions below.

Format: Project submissions shall be presented with the full names/details of the group members
(and if/where deemed appropriate, an indication of members’ involvements).
Project report to be concise, clear, referenced & professionally presented. Min font size ~11 point.

Marks: This assign-1 submission contributes 25% to the total unit mark. Marks awarded for content,
solution feasibility, decision justification(s), referenced sources, clarity, level of detail, format and,
style/presentation.

Notes:  discuss any information needed with the Project-Director/Unit-Coordinator before arranging
external-consultations.
 The scenario in this assignment is for your student-submission work in this Unit only.
You shall not contact anyone not assigned to assist you with the project for any reason.
If you require further info/clarification, please contact the ‘Unit-Coordinator’.

Project-Director G. Hoffman ; Unit-Coordinator A. Whyte

Activities: refer to scenario and related questions below.

Project-Director G. Hoffman ; Unit-Coordinator A. Whyte

Civil Engineering Practices Quality & Legislation Assignment ONE Sem One 2024

BACKGROUND
Traffic congestion has convinced the State Government that a major river crossing bridge over the Swan
River is no longer coping with the peak hour traffic flows in both directions. It has therefore charged the Main
Roads Authority to investigate and propose how to upgrade the bridge to cater for the current and future
predicted traffic flows as well as increased loading. The current bridge, which is a prestressed concrete box
structure, has 3 lanes of traffic in each direction and two Principal Shared Paths (PSPs).

Main Roads hires a design consultant to prepare a Scope of Works and Technical Criteria (SWTC) document
which spells out the performance requirements of the enhanced river crossing. This document includes such
information that would be applicable in widening the existing bridge, how many additional traffic lanes are
required, the applicable loading standard as well as specific aesthetic requirements.

The SWTC document is used as a basis for advising prospective designers and contractors during an
industry briefing presentation in which they describe the project to the construction industry in preparation
for calling for Expressions Of Interest (EOI) from suitably qualified organisations.
The Main Roads Authority has also undertaken preliminary works which included traffic modelling studies,
geotechnical site investigations, including a detailed geotechnical interpretative report, as well as land
acquisition and public consultation.

In your capacity as an expert civil engineering advisor/consultant you are required to address the following:

TASKS

PRE-CONTRACT-STAGE

(1) As the Main Roads Authority has started the tender process with an industry briefing and calling for
Expressions Of Interest, discuss:

a. Why has it done this?

b. What sort of information would be requested to be supplied by prospective constructors in the

EOI submission?

c. Once the EOI submissions are received by Main Roads, they need to evaluate and rank them.
Discuss how this would be done.

(2) The Main Roads Authority finally selects two organisations to then submit tenders for the project based
on a Design and Construct delivery method based on the SWTC and the other documents. On receipt of
two excellent tenders and after thorough reviews of both, they begin final negotiations with both of the
tenderers. Discuss:

a. What type organisations would have submitted a tender for this project (eg a combination of
what type of companies)?

b. Why would Main Roads negotiate with two preferred tenderers?

c. How would Main Roads ensure that these negotiations are conducted with appropriate probity
to ensure that neither party gains an unfair advantage over the other?

(3) Why did Main Roads include only outcome requirements in the SWTC and not also include various
properties (eg sizes, shapes, members sizes and properties) as well?

Project-Director G. Hoffman ; Unit-Coordinator A. Whyte

Civil Engineering Practices Quality & Legislation Assignment ONE Sem One 2024

POST-CONTRACT PROGRESSION OF THE WORKS

The contract is finally awarded as a Design and Construct contract to the Buildex Consortium who start
work by investigating various methods of achieving the requirements in the SWTC. The base or default
case is to widen the existing bridge which must be kept operational throughout the entire project. After
much preliminary design work and interactive workshops with various stakeholders, Buildex decides to
build an adjacent second bridge alongside the existing bridge in order to satisfy the SWTC requirements.
To minimise river foundation works and disruption to river traffic, the decision is made to construct the new
bridge using the incremental launch method while at the same time adding further strengthening elements
to the existing bridge.

Contract-clauses in GCC-standard-form-of contract-AS2124 can be used to illustrate responses/answers.

(4) During the course of the project, the Contractor strikes what appears to be unforeseen contaminated soil
that needs to be excavated and removed from site at one of the abutments. The contractor perceives
that this is causing additional costs and delays, and wishes to be reimbursed for deemed ‘extra’ costs.
Advise the Contractor what they should do and how to do it, assuming AS2124-1992 applies.

(5) Part way through the construction of the works, the Superintendent believes that some of the reinforced
concrete elements constructed have internal defects. Discuss what the parties should do based on
AS2124- 1992.

(6) As the project nears completion and with 4 months to go to the contractual completion date, the
Contractor is forecasting that they will finish some 4 weeks late. With $10,000 per week in liquidated
damages written into the contract, what would you advise the contractor, and the parties, to do?

(7) During the 4-month period mentioned above (Q6), extremely bad weather is perceived to have delayed
the Contractor even further; using the provisions in AS 2124-1992, advise the Contractor, and the
parties, what they should do.

ENDING OF THE WORKS

(8) The Contractor claims Practical Completion (under AS2124-1992) two weeks later than the extended
Practical Completion date even though the project is still far from totally complete. Discuss what this
means and discuss the process that the Contractor, and the parties, need to go through to achieve a
Practical Completion Certificate on the date that the Contractor is claiming.

(9) Once Practical Completion has been certified, discuss what this means contractually and what needs to
happen in the immediate period following this, again based on AS2124-1992:

(10) The project has a 10 year maintenance period built into it. Discuss the various obligations and limitations
of the Contractor, and the parties, during this period.

Project-Director G. Hoffman ; Unit-Coordinator A. Whyte