Why You Need A Construction Programme

The Construction Programme is the single most significant document that a contractor is likely to prepare between contract award and final account submission. 

The construction programme serves as a standard benchmark against which project progress is evaluated, along with the degree and root causes of any delays and any related right to extensions of time.

Minimum requirements.

As a minimum, the Construction Programme should offer a thorough breakdown of the order and timing of the tasks necessary to complete each section of the works.

Each activity's earliest and latest start and finish dates, relationships between activities, and basic critical path/s should be displayed along with important dates and milestones.

Essential elements for the construction programme.

Programme elements should include but not be limited to details of:

• Site access arrangements; 
• Location and size of the laydown areas, as well as a sketch showing their design and maintenance requirements; plus the size of the site compound area.
• Materials, equipment, and services to be provided by the employer (if there are any), and the necessary timing for delivery.  
• Information to be provided by the employer such as existing services, planning permissions, relevant designs, etc.
• Work to be carried out by the employees contractors, (if there are any) the required timing for their works, lead in periods and what provisions are required regarding access and storage requirements.
• Off-site fabrication of components, including factory inspections, progress checks, quality checks, the timing and arrangements for delivery, and the timing for delivery of any critical materials or goods from overseas suppliers.
• Other third party works e.g. essential service supplies or diversions, party-wall agreements, statutory approvals and or land purchases.
• Essential temporary works and related design and Health & Safety matters, maintenance schedules and access provisions.
• Key new plant requirements, related lead in times and installation periods.

As previously mentioned the above list is only an example and in reality each programme is job specific.

Construction programme approval.

Once the Contract Programme is approved, a baseline is established against which change can be measured. This requires that the programme be monitored and actual against anticipated progress recorded accurately. 

Progress should be recorded on specialist programming software against a copy of the Contract Programme to ensure that original data is not accidentally overwritten or deleted. 

Progress should be recorded on a weekly basis as longer periods can miss vital elements of the construction process.

Records  should encompass not only the contractor’s own work but also that of key subcontractors and the status of employer and third party contractors as well. 

This information will form the basis of any periodic progress reports such as monthly progress meetings called for under the contract.

In conclusion

A construction programme is not only a requirement of the contract but also a crucial management tool that enables proactive planning to guarantee that projects are completed on time, within budget, and to high quality standards.  

Construction programmes are vital to a projects success because they clearly outline a project’s scope of work, identifying timescales, lead times, development phases and duration's, as well as the sequence of activities and the labour, plant and material resources needed to complete the project.

Lisa Carr - Project Manager

If you'd like to see how we can help your project to be successful, get in touch here HCS Project Management

Give us a call 01538 711777

Or Email hello@hc-services.uk

Meet our team?  https://hc-services.uk/about-hcs/