Construction program

The construction program is the builder's schedule of when work happens - usually a management tool rather than a contract document, but the evidentiary backbone of every delay and disruption claim on the job.

Check whether the program is a contract document (creating obligations to work to it) or merely issued for information - and what the contract says about your obligation to follow updates and resequencing, which can compress your work without a formal variation.

For claims, contemporaneous program evidence is what wins: the program before the delay, the program after, and records tying the movement to the cause.

Why it matters to subbies

Keep every program revision you are issued, dated. When your work is resequenced or compressed, notify in writing - out-of-sequence working is a classic unclaimed cost.

General information for Australian subcontractors, not legal advice - contract drafting and state legislation vary and change; your document and your state's Act govern. Written by Mat Kennedy at The Construction Contracts Co.