Globally, construction activity is growing at an unprecedented rate. It’s estimated that during the next 40 years, 230 billion square meters of new infrastructure will be built. At the same time, climate change is making extreme weather events more common.
Whether you’re building a stadium in South Africa or a skyscraper in Dubai, you can bet that the weather will be an even bigger challenge than it was before.
In most cases, this shouldn’t be an excuse for delays. We can prevent or at least mitigate many of the delays by understanding the weather in a place, including its potential extremes.
With careful planning, weather-dependent activities can be scheduled for when better conditions can be expected. We can also implement mitigating measures to reduce damage and return the project to full production as fast as possible.
However, contractors should not be expected to shoulder the responsibility for extreme weather events or those that could not have been reasonably expected. They should therefore be cautious in accepting contracts where they could be liable for these delays.
Read the full article from Marcia Davids and Damian James in Global Construction Review here.
If you are looking for help with delay analysis resulting from weather events on your project, get in touch today.