With many of our projects run on NEC3 (soon to be NEC4) contracts it is important that our project managers have the skills to understand the nuances of such contracts once they have been approved by our legal team. On 24 May 2018 seven Sheffield and Edinburgh based project managers attended an NEC contract workshop hosted by ramskill martin’s Sheffield office. Ramksill martin are multi-disciplinary construction contract consultants and adjudicators who offer a versatile and comprehensive range of services to clients, main contractors and sub-contracting organisations.
The half-day workshop and surgery hosted by Nick Cheetham and Mark Pountney provided an overview of how construction contractors work, negotiation tactics, NEC compensation events and Z Clauses. The event focused on lessons learned from Wessex projects and what alternative approaches could have been utilised. With archaeological work often falling outside the previous experience of construction firms, a key point was making sure that the proposed contract was the right one for the task in hand.
With both Mark and Nick having worked as Quantity Surveyors prior to their roles at ramksill martin their experience of managing contracts was invaluable. Their real world advice and the surgery has focused our minds on the potential pitfalls of NEC contracts and provided the skills needed to ward off any future contractual difficulties.