Question

2. In each of the following cases, what kind of delay seems reasonable? Explain.
   1. The contractor is late but claims that it is due to inclement weather that has prevented him from placing concrete.
   2. The owner was responsible for providing structural steel for the project but could not deliver the steel on time to the project site.
   3. The contractor is behind schedule because he has moved his only large crane to another jobsite in order to avoid paying liquidated damages on that job.

Answer 1

a. The contractor is hiding his act of negligence in this case by using the technical parameters as his cover and this act can render time proliferation which will delay the total completion time of the project. This delay can be categorized as non-excusable delay where the contractor is liable to pay compensation to the owner for delaying the work progress. The compensation comes into act because the contractor could have avoided the delay by being early on his job rather than neglecting his commitment to the project.

Thus, delay represented by the contractor is a non-excusable delay and attracts compensation during bill processing of the construction work.

b. The owner has down played his role in this case and the delay in the overall construction work is reasonable on the part of contractor and unreasonable on the part of owner. The owner should be committed in providing the required materials to the contractor where and when the contractor is in need of them and failing in doing so will not only hamper the image of the contractor for the delay but also the precious time of contractor gets wasted for a deficiency of a single material due to irresponsible behavior of the owner.

Thus the delay is reasonable and excusable on the part of contractor and attracts no compensation from his side.

c. In this case the delay can be asserted as a concurrent delay where the other party is being benefitted for the work offered on this job that is, the owner of the another project will claim the benefit in the form of liquidated damages if the stipulated crane is not present in his site. In this case the delay is reasonable unless and until the delay is not going to hamper the overall completion time and the delay is a function of free float available in the project completion time. The delay can be categorized into unreasonable or non excusable if the delay is critical where the delay is going to hamper the progress of critical activities associated with the project completion.   

Therefore any delay can be categorized as unreasonable if and only if the delay is function of act of negligence of owner or contractor and if the delay is non controllable on the part of contractor like environmental factors, unpredicted price fluctuation these delays are reasonable and additional time for completion can be granted.

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