Estimated Q&A Contract

93. What is a V.O.?

i. The Architect shall order any variation to any part of works that is
necessary for the completion of works
ii. It includes addition, omission, substitution, alternation and change in
quality of works specified in the contract
iii. Change of construction sequence, method and timing of construction
specified in the contract
iv. The contractor submits the time and cost effects of the variation to the
Architect
94. How to monitor the progress of works?
i. Review the master programme and 3-month rolling programme against
the actual site progress of construction activities.
ii. Closely monitor the site work and meeting / discuss with site agent and
foremen to understand the difficulties facings and thinking of possible
solutions to help resolving them.
iii. The actual expenditure should be checked against the financial forecast.
95. What would you do if you found the progress of works is behind schedule
i. Discussion and meeting with the site frontline staff to find out the root
cause of delay and find out workable solutions.
ii. Review the master programme and EOTs if the slippage in progress
would affect the timely completion of project.
96. What is Contingency sum?
i. The purpose of the cost is to cover the cost for unforeseen items. An
unexpected event.
ii. Amount is about 3% of the contract sum.
iii. If there is no such usage, this represent a saving to the employer.
97. What is provisional item?
i. The purpose of provisional item is to cover the cost of works which
cannot be entirely foreseen or detailed accurately during tender stage.
ii. For example, the Architect know that the RW should be constructed but
the dimension or details not certain.
iii. During the progress of the project, the Architect issue an AI together with
full details of the wall to the contractor
iv. The QS deduct the provisional sum from the contract sum and add back
the value of the RW.
98. What are the critical activities of your project
i. Construction of ELS
ii. Tower crane erection
iii. Construction of structural framing from pile cap level to R/F
iv. Internal finishes / BS / Lift installation for tower
v. Statutory inspection occupation permit

99. Can you explain what is Lump Sum contract?

i. The contractor undertakes to complete the works and he is to be paid by
a lump sum
ii. The scope of works is well defined at the time of tender
iii. This type of contract poses the risk to contractor so he has to increase
his tender price accordingly.
iv. This sum of the contractor is usually by estimating labour cost, material
cost and adding specific amount that cover the overhead (3-5%) and
profit margin (5-10%)
100. How do you access the 2M saving for using existing platform in site C?
i. I compared the costs for both options, including material and installation
labour cost and machinery costs:
ii. Option 1
iii. For Material and labour cost: It was around HKD 15,000 per tonne (i.e
AUD 2,600), the total tonnage of the platform was estimated to be
187Tonne. If we chose option 1, then the cost would be HKD 2.8M
iv. For Machinery, the installation of platform will require to rent a mobile
crane for material delivery because the only tower crane of the site was
actually very busy for serving the precast facades lifting and rebar lifting
for site A. The renting cost would be HKD $81,000 for 3 days.
v. Total cost will be 2.9M
vi. Option 2
vii. For material and labour cost, we purchased from them at a discount rate
$2900/T because they saved the cost for dismantling their platform and
transportation cost and depreciation. So the total cost would be 0.5M
viii. The strengthening cost including the additional channel bracings and
lacings will cost around 0.4M. There was no need to rent the mobile
crane because the strengthening involved only 152x76x17.9 KG/m and
UC 203x203x46.
ix. Total cost for option 2 would be 0.9M
x. Total saving would be 2M
101. Have you claimed for any EOT?
The EOT claim for this project was mainly due to inclement weather.