Time

The contractor's obligations as to ‘time’ are often considered one of the essential terms of a building contract. ‘Time of the essence’ clauses are often found in contracts for supply of goods or where performance of the contract can be achieved by a single action, such as a goods delivery or the making of a payment. A contract may contain onerous clauses, the intention of which is to hold the contractor to its obligation to complete by the completion date, even when faced with employer variations, strikes or adverse weather conditions. Critical path analysis and other forms of delay analysis are by their nature, complex tasks. Delay analysis also comes with its share of technical terms. ‘Time impact analysis’ will be most accurate when the intervals, or progress periods from which progress information is taken, are practicably, at their shortest.