Prolongation Claims: The Basic Principles

HKA Quantum Expert Craig Enderbury sets out the basic principles of prolongation cost claims using a simple and hypothetical example. He highlights the common pitfalls of assuming time equals money and the misguided application of rates and prices from preliminaries schedule of rates / bill of quantities.

A Contractor holds an internal monthly meeting on a construction project that is in delay and over budget. Someone remarks, "Let's get an extension of time, and then we can recover all our time-related costs", swiftly followed with an enthusiastic reply, "Sounds like a plan. We can adopt our tender rates for preliminaries items and multiply the rates by the period of over-run".