International construction, where contractors perform works in foreign countries, poses cultural and contractual risks resulting from the dissimilarities in social and legal outlooks. One of the major risks that leads to disputes in such international projects is poor contract administration. Research has been focused toward the cultural risks and ex-post dispute resolution in international construction, missing the important ex-ante dispute avoidance aspect. This paper addresses this knowledge gap with a special focus on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which is the largest economy in the Middle East and North Africa. The paper does so by providing in-depth—yet practical—contract administration guidelines for U.S. contractors working in public works projects in KSA. The focus was put on KSA because of its economic strength and because KSA’s associated contractual risks are uniquely relevant to those of other countries. To this end, the authors conducted comparative analysis between the Saudi Public Works Contract (PWC) and the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) with respect to change orders, extension of time, liquidated damages, differing site conditions, and dispute resolution. Through exhibiting the important contractual and legal considerations that are unique to KSA, the outcomes of this research include: (1) a comparative checklist showing the similarities and differences between the two governmental approaches; and (2) a matrix of relative opportunities and risks of the PWC and FAR. Such an approach of analyzing the Saudi contracting environment from a U.S.-based context has not been undertaken before. As such, the study is beneficial to the U.S. contractor as it facilitates the understanding of the contractual premises in KSA and the associated risks and opportunities. This enhanced understanding will not only improve performance and minimize risks but also promote the contractor’s strategic presence in the global market.

A framework for multi-party relational contracting is proposed whereby the owner, contractor, suppliers, and manufacturers collaboratively work together under similar terms and conditions. The proposed framework improves and fills the voids in the already available Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) agreements. To this end, a four-step research methodology was utilized. First, a comparative analysis between available traditional and relational contract agreements was provided. Second, the available standard integrated project delivery contracts in the United States and the standard partnering contracts in the United Kingdom were reviewed. Third, practical case studies in the US market were reviewed and analyzed for lessons learned. Fourth, the proposed framework was developed to address ten critical interrelated aspects including: project environment, project management, partnering advisor, design process, partnering and project schedules, suppliers and manufacturers, prices and profits, incentives, changes, and conflicts and disputes. This study paves the ground for a more efficient and effective contracting environment that can hopefully recover communication, encourage cooperation, share risk, improve quality, decrease cost, minimize waste, maximize efficiency, and mitigate conflicts. The proposed framework should be formally drafted by legal professionals to allow piloting and testing on actual case study projects. While this research is applied within the framework of the U.S. market, its results and associated discussions and analyses are transferrable and implementable in other contracting environments.

Social network analysis (SNA) is a well-established methodology for investigating networks through the use of mathematical formulations abstracted from graph theory. It has been successfully used in social sciences to evaluate how individuals and institutions are affected by societal or professional networks, and it has been applied to some civil and construction engineering applications where a network’s main actors are people or organizations controlled by people. Current transportation analysis tools are expensive and time consuming, and require rigorous data for reliable results. Accordingly, a quick and inexpensive methodology to preliminarily analyze traffic networks is beneficial to better direct more detailed transportation analyses. Because of its ability to grasp the full complexity and connectivity of networks in a timely and cost effective manner, SNA can fulfill this requirement. Mathematically speaking, social networks are very close to transportation networks because they share fund...

It is well-established that disputes have adverse effects on cost, delivery dates, and quality of construction projects. Studies have shown that poor contract administration is yet the leading cause of disputes. One of the core elements in construction contracts is payment. Although contractual provisions—including employer’s payment obligations—are usually expressly sated in contracts, they are sometimes misunderstood and/or misapplied, leading to major impacts on projects and firms. The objective of this paper is to present guidelines for appropriate administration of the employer’s payment clauses under the most widely used national and international design-build contracts. The paper focuses on the design-build delivery system for its emerging wide use in large-scale construction projects. The authors studied the provisions related to employer’s payment obligations under multiple standard design-build forms of contract including those published by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), ConsensusDOCS, the Engineers’ Joint Contract Documents Committee (EJCDC), the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC), the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT), and the New Engineering Contract (NEC). In doing so, the authors used a multistep research methodology that included: (1) classifying the causes of contractual problems related to poor administration of employer’s payment provisions; (2) analyzing the conditions for employer’s payment obligations in the studied contracts, the associated required procedures, and the interrelated repercussions for failure to such provisions; (3) presenting a detailed comparison showing the commonalities and differences between the different contracts; and (4) developing a checklist of the important contractual considerations in payment provisions. The direct outcomes of this research will enable stakeholders to quickly review payment provisions in different standard forms and assist them in selecting the proper form that suits their project. Moreover, the proposed checklist will act as a tool for stakeholders to assess their understanding of a project’s contractual clauses and as a guideline for drafting new contracts. To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study of its kind and is the most comprehensive in its approach and associated analyses. By educating owners and design-builders about contractual payment considerations, this study should promote efficient and effective contract administration, thus minimizing disputes and enabling parties to mitigate the related consequences during the course of their projects.