Case Studies > Waste Water Incinerator Plant

Location Confidential

Toxic Waste Water Incinerator Plant comprising of all mechanical and electrical engineering installations, steel structures, piping, incineration equipment, power and power distribution, operations and control systems, the contract was awarded to a Consortium (The Contractor) of which our client was one of the Consortium members responsible for the combustion chambers, burners, piping, instrumentation, engineering, and supervision of erection.

KEY FEATURES

The contract was awarded on a fixed-price, lump-sum turnkey basis under the Employer’s hybrid form of design and build contract, and was subject to numerous causes of disruption and delay and additional cost and expense during the various phases of design and engineering, procurement, and erection, resulting in serious delays to the foreseen sectional completion dates thereby exposing our client to the imposition of considerable penalties. Our client was also facing additional penalties in connection with the apparent failure to reach the performance criteria specified by the contract.

CONSULTANCY SERVICES Claims Management (Prosecution/Defence)

Lancaster House International Consulting were requested by our client to undertake a complete review of the project including all contract documents, and all correspondence in both the English and German languages with the Employer and other Consortium members, in order to establish liability for the ensuing the delays and liability for the apparent failure to reach the contractually specified performance criteria in respect of the discharge capacity of the plant. Lancaster House International Consulting tabled its findings in an executive summary paper, which established that the cause of delay and problems with the performance criteria lay primarily with the Employer.

Lancaster House International Consulting was subsequently requested by the client to prepare in full co-ordination and liaison with an international team of lawyers, appointed at the recommendation of Lancaster House International Consulting, a fully substantiated detailed statement of claim asserting the employers' liability in respect of delay and our clients entitlement to extensions of time to the various contractual dates prescribed for sectional completion of the plant.

The objective was to defend our clients positioned in the event of any action by the employer either directly or indirectly towards our client for the recovery of penalties for delay and in respect of penalties relating to performance criteria. The objective was furthermore to assert our client’s contractual/legal entitlement to the reimbursement of additional cost and expense incurred during the extended contract periods, and additional cost incurred in rectification works to the plant as a result of the Employer being unable to provide the contractually specified toxic water.

With the assistance of Lancaster House International Consulting our client was able to successfully negotiate full relief of the imposition of penalties and furthermore full relief from penalties in respect of performance criteria, as a result of the employers' failure to provide the quality of toxic water as specified by the Contract.