Engineering contracts

The responsibilities of the diem and contractor throughout the project to the completion of commissioning must be clearly understood and defined in engi-neering contracts. Any new projea may well involve technology licensed from a third parly and the responsibilities of this licensor must also be clear, understood and set out in the relevant contract. 

A policy for supervising contractors and subcontractors should be decided from the start since it is important that the roles and responsibilities of the client and contractors representatives are dearly understood. 

U is generally desirable for the client s operations staff to be involved in commissioning, even when this is being carried out by acontractor, and thought should be given to this when drawing up a contract. 

When inviting firms to tender for a contract, the client organization must consider not only the contractor s competence and competitiveness in design and manufacture but also proposals for, and track record in, plant commissioning. 

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In most engineering contracts for works to be carried out on site, there are unknown costs at the time of bid and costs which are known, where the work is to be carried out by others, but to be under the control of the successful bidder. These sums are shown below ... 

The essence of a plant engineering contract will be that the plant actually performs to the criteria laid down in the design, and this must be established before a Practical Completion Certificate is even considered. Tests will need to be made to the plant, and then it will be commissioned by the contractor and left in a condition whereby it can be operated as specified. When the work within the contract is complete, a certificate should be issued by the client (or employer) to the contractor. The architect or consulting engineer acting as agent normally performs this duty. 

The success of Linde s process and engineering contracting business is discussed. Its proprietary technology includes petrochemical projects, largely ethylene crackers, which account for roughly half of its sales, and over 300 processes protected by 1500 patents. 

The second demonstration plant will consist of a multistage flash process for a 1,000,000-gallon-per-day plant to be located on the West Coast. A site on Point Loma at San Diego has been selected for this plant. The Fluor Corp., Whittier, Calif., has been awarded the architectural and engineering contract for the distillation plant, and it is planned to let a construction contract in November. 

Although supplier engineering contracts are usually fulfilled on satisfactory completion of the SAT, the performance of a computer system over a spread of data-handling conditions in the real-time environment of a manufacturing process is difficult to fully test at any one time. Consequently, consideration should be given to extending contractual conditions related to system performance into the system operational period, where the broader system performance issues can be better evaluated and reported. 

Clark, S. J., Schrock, M. D., Wagner, L. E., and Piennaar, P. G. 1983. In Final Report for Project 5980—Soybean Oil Esters as a Renewable Fuel for Diesel Engines (Contract No. 59-2201-1-6-059-0, US.). Peoria IL Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 

General Considerations In-House Engineering Contracted Engineering... 

Very few operating companies retain a large enough engineering staff to carry out all of these activities internally, except for very small projects. In most cases, one or more of the major engineering contracting firms will be brought in. 

Building Law Reports (0141-5875). Published by George Godwin. Although largely concerned with building contracts and contract case law, some cases relate directly to civil engineering contracts, and many have an indirect relevance. 

International Construction Law Review (0265-1416). Published by Lloyds/Informa. Very useful on the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) and also on international development of the New Engineering Contract (NEC). 

Goodowens, J. B. 1996. A User s Guide to Federal Architect Engineer Contracts. New York Americau Society of Civil Engineers. This explains all facets of the architect engineering contract from preselection to cost negotiation to architect engineer liability. It is intended... 

Mclnnnis, A. 2001. The New Engineering Contract A Legal Commentary. London Thomas Telford. The first heavyweight commentary on the New Engineering Contract (NEC), discussing the principles behind the NEC rather than a line-by-line analysis of clauses. Heavily referenced throughout. 

Wallace, I. N. D. 1995. Hudson s Building and Engineering Contracts, 11th ed. (2 vols.) London Sweet Maxwell. Heavyweight commentary on British contracts. As with all such texts, changes in case law, and the introduction of new contract forms means that it can only provide guidance. 

International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) http //www.fidic.org/ (accessed April 1,2011). An international body based in Switzerland responsible for a range of contract forms and procedures that are widely used in international civil engineering contracts. 

Material acquisition, processing, and storage. Vendor relationships including certification. Component engineering. Contracting, financing of suppliers. 

Terzaghi K, Peck RB, Mesri G (1996) Soil mechanics in engineering practice, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York, 549 p Vasquez-Herrera A, Dobry R (1989) Re-evaluation of the Lower San Fernando Dam report 3, the behavior of undrained contractive sand and its effect on seismic liquefaction flow failures of earth structures. US Army Corps of Engineers contract report GL-89-2, US Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg... 

S. CHAMPION, PhD, MSc(Eng). FICE. FIStructE. MSocCE (France), Chief Engineer, Contracts Design Department, Scaffolding (Great Britain) Ltd... 

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