DGA Ebrief August 2022 - 11 Aug 2022
The Women’s Football Euros tournament and the Commonwealth Games have provided a welcome distraction to wider world problems over the last couple of months. International countries have been harmoniously competing and celebrating together, with our Australian offices having bragging rights at the top of the Games medal table. More positive news is that even with the ongoing war, Ukraine has managed to start getting grain supplies to the countries that need it most, where hunger is a problem even in more stable times.
At the time of this edition, the UK is gripped by the government deciding who its new leader should be. Hopefully, there will be no claims for extension of time in what is already a prolonged process, and allow running the country to become a priority again!
With a second heat wave about to hit the UK, following record 40 degrees plus temperatures in July and with Australia having experienced flooding in a number of states with record levels in Brisbane, our core business locations are alive to the issues of climate change.
We look to the NEC contracts twice in this issue. One of which has a climate change theme, Brendan Robinson’s (UK Director) article focuses on how formal construction contracts are starting to consider the global climate change crisis, and John Donnelly (Director) and Niraka Harrira, (Senior Consultant) from our Melbourne office examine how the promotion of the use of NEC will result in collaborative working on the major projects in Australia
As a Quantity Surveyor myself, it is refreshing to see Gordon Aitken extolling the virtues of the lost art of ‘measurement’ in his article with the hope of reigniting this skilled practice. David Fogarty, Associate Director in our UK delay team, looks at the perennial issue of ‘acceleration’ on construction projects, both pre-emptively and retrospectively.
Finally, our guest article in this edition involves an author collaboration, this time between Josh Roberts and Thomas Wheeler from Clyde & Co LLP in the UK. Josh and Thomas look at the rising costs in construction due to both national and international market movements.
Recent months have seen a return of the DGA face-to-face training in the form of breakfast seminars led by Scott Milner in the UK and our senior management overseas. DGA are able to facilitate training across our international offices, whether it be breakfast sessions, or more structured bespoke in-house or public sessions focused on professional development and / or matters currently affecting how we resolve matters of dispute on projects. Full details of what DGA can offer in this respect are provided at the end of this publication and on our website.
I would like to thank all contributors, including the authors of our guest article, Josh Roberts and Thomas Wheeler of Clyde & Co LLP.
Jim Bourke
DGA Group Managing Director
To read the full edition please click here or visit The Reading Room