As Building Information Modelling (BIM) continues to become one of the hottest topics in the construction industry, the stark differences between the aspirations of government and the readiness of the industry to implement BIM become even more apparent.
Before the Christmas break, I took a look at ownership rights and BIM. This post now highlights some of the issues that arise when different members of a project team have reached different levels of readiness.
Last summer people were talking about HHJ Waksman QC’s judgment in Lanes v Galliford Try, not least because it looked to mark the end of adjudicators giving the parties their provisional view of the case they were being asked to decide. However, it seems that we don’t need to be so worried after all, as Jackson LJ in the Court of Appeal has reversed that decision.
There has been a great deal of debate about fitness for purpose v reasonable skill and care in these columns. This is a look at the topic from a slightly different point of view.
It’s that time of year again, when everyone starts looking forwards (or backwards) and starts making lists of things that they’d like to see (or not see) happen over the next 12 months or so. Not wanting to be left out, here’s my list. I appreciate not all of these will be achieved in 2012, but that is the beauty of a “wish-list”.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ring out, wild bells:
“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow. The year is going, let him go. Ring out the false, ring in the true.”
As one year ends, so another year begins. PLC has been reflecting on events in 2011 and looking forward to 2012. Continue reading
William Shakespeare, Sonnets:
“How like a winter hath my absence been,
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness everywhere!”
During December, we continued where we left off at the end of November, with more new and updated content. We published seven more standard documents on boundary walls and excavations under the Party Wall Act 1996 and new practice notes on the ACE Agreements and the National Infrastructure Plan 2011 (NIP 2011). There was a toolkit on bribery and corruption and one on health and safety. We also revised our notes on the CIC Consultants’ Contract and the FIDIC Sub-contract 2011. Continue reading
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist:
“‘If the law supposes that,’ said Mr Bumble… ‘the law is a ass – a idiot.'”:
The second half of 2011 has seen a number of important decisions affecting construction and engineering practitioners, including: Continue reading
Do you know your Tolent clause from your Santa Claus? Then why not test your knowledge of construction law? Berwin Leighton Paisner’s Christmas quiz is back and as challenging as ever. Continue reading
There are 32 London boroughs (plus the City of London), but a quick review of the reported cases over the last five years shows that only one has ended up in the TCC trying to resist the enforcement of an adjudicator’s decision: Camden, and not just once.
Camden’s previous trips to the TCC have not ended happily for it. William Verry Ltd (RIP) successfully enforced an adjudicator’s decision against Camden in 2006 and Makers (UK) Ltd successfully enforced adjudicators’ decisions against it in 2008 and 2009.
No doubt Camden thought that it would fare better in its most recent visit with Sprunt Ltd. Alas, it was not to be. Once again it was ordered to pay the sum awarded by the adjudicator. Let me explain why. Continue reading
Already frequently used in the USA and now compulsory on public projects in Denmark and Finland, Building Information Modelling (BIM) looks set to explode upon the UK domestic construction industry over the next few years. This development will be spearheaded by some major infrastructure projects and the government’s initiative to make it compulsory on public projects by 2016 (BIM Working Party Strategy Paper 2011).
This is the first in a series of articles, which deal with some of the legal issues that BIM presents.