A surreal moment

The first site meeting for two months took place this week. A surreal exercise, with the most comprehensive turn-out for a long time. More than ever, it’s impossible to judge the real commitment of the contractor to complete the project. It’s only another week or two of work still to be done but there is a real sense of “we’ve been through this all before”. Unless we can see some real action, in the guise of programme of works for the outstanding issues, it’s hard to let the crew back on site. We also need to ensure the long list of “snagging” items is resolved without any further delays. No snagging – no release of the retention, which represents an immediate 2.5% of the total contract value on completion and a further 2.5% in 12 months’ time – assuming we won’t have to make any warranty claims in the meantime.