Addressing COVID-19 In Future Contracts For Your Construction Project

There has been an abundance of recent commentary on how the COVID-19 pandemic might be treated under existing construction contracts. Based on lessons learned to date, and given the need for the construction industry to move forward, it makes sense for parties to address the risks of the COVID-19 pandemic for forthcoming projects. Every project is different and alternative risk allocation models involve careful analysis and drafting, but there are some broad commercial approaches that parties could consider in updating their template contracts to deal with the known and unknown consequences of the pandemic for future projects. The applicability of each approach will require an informed evaluation of the associated risks and potential outcomes: