A new 30-classroom secondary school is being delivered under NEC contracts in Hong Kong’s Kai Tak development zone in Kowloon. In addition to the main works contract, quantity surveying services for Cognitio College (Kowloon)’s new HK$381 million (£37 million) campus are also being procured under NEC – a first for the government’s Architectural Services Department (ArchSD).
ArchSD engaged construction consultant, Northcroft Hong Kong Limited, to provide quantity surveying services under a HK$2.5 million (£240,000) NEC3 Professional Services Contract (PSC) option A (priced contract with activity schedule) in July 2016. The NEC-procured consultancy agreement is one of two such pilots being carried out by ArchSD.
In line with the government’s pilot scheme to adopt NEC as far as possible for public works contracts, ArchSD is using ECC Option B for the main works contract. Contractor, Hanison Construction Company Limited, started on site in March 2017 and is due to complete the five-storey, 12 944 m2 development in April 2019.
As well as 30 classrooms, the new campus will provide other teaching rooms and facilities, an assembly hall, a covered playground, two basketball courts, a running track and numerous other state-of-the-art student and staff facilities. Cognitio College (Kowloon) will relocate to the new building from its existing premises in Wong Tai Sin district in time for the 2019/2020 academic year.
DELIVERING VALUE FOR MONEY
According to ArchSD’s Chief project Manager 102, Chan Fat-yau, ‘As well as reflecting government procurement directives, the objective of NEC aligns with ArchSD’s project management approach –achieving better working relationship between contracting parties with better collaborative effort to enhance project management effectiveness.
‘NEC adopts the approach of ‘contractual partnering’, requiring contracting parties to work together ‘in a spirit of mutual trust and co-operation’ with a view to achieve efficient and effective solutions through timely and clear decision making supported by proactive and collaborative risk-management practice’.
Chan says all standard key features of the NEC3 PSC have been adopted for the quantity surveying consultancy contract at Kai Tak, including communications timeframes, early warnings, risk-reduction meetings, compensation events and accepted programmes.
WORKING COLLABORATIVELY
‘From the start of the consultancy agreement in July 2016, the consultant and ArchSD’s project team have worked collaboratively to meet various milestones within very tight timeframes to enable the main works contract to start in March 2017.’
Chan says both parties have been applying PSC tools to help manage the consultancy contract, including the full range of NEC risk-management processes. ‘During the first 15 months there have been two early warnings raised and followed up by risk-reduction meetings. There have been no compensation events.’
Compared to using traditional government consultancy agreements, Chan says that so far the PSC at Kai Tak is delivering equally well in terms of time, financial, quality and risk management. ‘It is also expected that the risk of disputes will be reduced due to collaborative working between the contract parties.’
BENEFITS OF USING NEC
- The objective of NEC aligns with ArchSD’s project management approach of achieving better working relationships between contracting parties with better collaborative effort to enhance project management effectiveness.
- NEC provides ‘contractual partnering’, requiring contracting parties to work together ‘in a spirit of mutual trust and co-operation’ with a view to achieve efficient and effective solutions through timely and clear decision making supported by proactive and collaborative risk management.
- PSC at Kai Tak has so far delivered comparable performance with Hong Kong government consultancy contracts, plus expected reduced risk of disputes due to collaborative working between contract parties.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Contact: Willy Yeung, Project Manager 144, Architectural Services Department, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2867 3425
Email: yeungssw@archsd.gov.hk
Web: www.archsd.gov.hk
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