Measurement in civil engineering and building is a core skill and the means by which an architectural or engineering design may be modelled financially, providing the framework to control and realise designs within defined cost parameters, to the satisfaction of the client. Measurement has a particular skill base, but it is elevated to an ‘art’ because the quantity surveyor is frequently called upon to interpret incomplete designs in order to determine the intentions of the designer so that contractors may be fully informed when compiling their tenders.
Managing Measurement Risk in Building and Civil Engineering will help all those who use measurement in their work or deal with the output from the measurement process, to understand not only the ‘ins and outs’ of measuring construction work but also the relationship that measurement has with contracts, procurement, claims and post-contract control in construction. The book is for quantity surveyors, engineers and building surveyors but also for site engineers required to record and measure events on site with a view to establishing entitlement to variations, extras and contractual claims.
The book focuses on the various practical uses of measurement in a day-to-day construction context and provides guidance on how to apply quantity surveying conventions in the many different circumstances encountered in practice. A strong emphasis is placed on measurement in a risk management context as opposed to simply ‘taking-off’ quantities. It also explains how to use the various standard methods of measurement in a practical working environment and links methods of measurement with conditions of contract, encompassing the contractual issues connected with a variety of procurement methodologies. At the same time, the many uses and applications of measurement are recognised in both a main contractor and subcontractor context.
Measurement has moved into a new and exciting era of on-screen quantification and BIM models but this has changed nothing in terms of the basic principles underlying measurement: thoroughness, attention to detail, good organisation, making work auditable and, above all, understanding the way building and engineering projects are designed and built.
This book will help to give you the confidence to both ‘measure’ and understand measurement risk issues by:
- presenting the subject of measurement in a modern context with a risk management emphasis
- recognising the interrelationship of measurement with contractual issues including identification of pre- and post-contract measurement risk issues
- emphasising the role of measurement in the entirety of the contracting process particularly considering measurement risk implications of both formal and informal tender documentation and common methods of procurement
- conveying the basic principles of measurement and putting them in an IT context
- incorporating detailed coverage of NRM1 and NRM2, CESMM4, Manual of Contract Documents for Highway Works and POM(I), including a comparison of NRM2 with SMM7 and a detailed analysis of changes from CESMM3 to CESMM4
- discussing the measurement implications of major main and sub-contract conditions (JCT, NEC3, Infrastructure Conditions and FIDIC)
- providing detailed worked examples and explanations of computer-based measurement using a variety of industry-standard software packages
Table of Contents
Preface xix
Author Biography xxiii
Acknowledgements xxv
Glossary xxvii
Addendum xxxi
Part 1 Measurement in Construction 1
1 The Role and Purpose of Measurement 3
1.2 The end of measurement or a new beginning? 5
1.3 How's your Latin? 7
1.4 Standardised measurement 10
1.5 Measurement: skill or art? 16
2 Measurement and Design 21
2.1 Introduction 22
2.2 Design 22
2.3 BIM 26
2.4 BIM quantities 32
3 Measurement Conventions 39
3.1 Traditional conventions 39
3.2 Modern conventions 46
3.3 B IM conventions 57
4 Approaches to Measurement 63
4.1 Measurement skills 64
4.2 Uses of measurement 64
4.3 Pareto principle 65
4.4 Measurement documentation 66
4.5 Formal bills of quantities 66
4.6 Formal quasi' bills of quantities 68
4.7 Formal 'operational' bills of quantities 77
4.8 Informal bills of quantities 78
4.9 Quantities risk transfer 81
4.10 Activity schedules 82
4.11 Price lists 94
4.12 Contract sum analyses 95
4.13 Schedules of actual cost 96
Part 2 Measurement Risk 103
5 New Rules of Measurement: NRM1 105
5.1 New rules: New approach 105
5.2 The status of NRM1 106
5.3 Structure of NRM1 108
5.4 Design cost control: Introduction 110
5.5 Design cost control: Techniques 113
5.6 Order of cost estimates 121
5.7 Cost planning 132
5.8 Part 4: Tabulated rules of measurement for elemental cost planning 148
6 New Rules of Measurement: NRM2 161
6.1 Introduction 161
6.2 What is NRM2? 164
6.3 Status of NRM2 165
6.4 NRM2 structure 166
6.5 Part 1: general 167
6.6 Definitions 169
6.7 Part 2: rules for detailed measurement of building works 178
6.8 Codification of bills of quantities 203
6.9 Part 3: Tabulated rules of measurement for building works 222
6.10 Tabulated work sections 235
7 Civil Engineering Standard Method of Measurement 265
7.1 Contract neutral 265
7.2 National standard neutral 266
7.3 Section 1: Definitions 266
7.4 Section 2: General principles 270
7.5 Section 3: Application of the work classification 273
7.6 Section 4: Coding and numbering of items 278
7.7 Section 5: Preparation of the Bill of Quantities 281
7.8 Section 6: Completion, pricing and use of the Bill of Quantities 293
7.9 Section 7: Method-related charges 295
7.10 Work classification 301
7.11 Class A: General items 302
7.12 Class B: Ground investigation 306
7.13 Class C: Geotechnical and other specialist processes 308
7.14 Class D: Demolition and site clearance 311
7.15 Class E: Earthworks 313
7.16 Class F: In situ concrete 323
7.17 Class G: Concrete ancillaries 326
7.18 Class H: Precast concrete 330
7.19 Class I: Pipework – pipes 332
7.20 Class J: Pipework – fittings and valves 338
7.21 Class K: Pipework – Manholes and Pipework Ancillaries 339
7.22 Class L: Pipework – supports and protection, ancillaries to laying and excavation 344
7.23 Class M: Structural metalwork 347
7.24 Class N: Miscellaneous metalwork 348
7.25 Class O: Timber 348
7.26 Class P: Piles 349
7.27 Class Q: Piling ancillaries 351
7.28 Class R: Roads and pavings 352
7.29 Class S: Rail track 354
7.30 Class T: Tunnels 356
7.31 Class U: Brickwork, blockwork and masonry 358
7.32 Class V: Painting 358
7.33 Class W: Waterproofing 359
7.34 Class X: Miscellaneous work 359
7.35 Class Y: Sewer and water main renovation and ancillary works 360
7.36 Class Z: Simple building works incidental to civil engineering works 361
8 Method of Measurement for Highway Works 363
8.1 Manual of Contract Documents for Highway Works 363
8.2 Design manual for roads and bridges 368
8.3 Highways England procurement 368
8.4 Measurement implications of procurement choices 370
8.5 Contractual arrangements 372
8.6 Specification for Highway Works 375
8.7 Method of Measurement for Highway Works 378
8.8 Item descriptions 391
8.9 Contractor design 396
8.10 Measurement and billing of contractor-designed elements 401
8.11 Measurement of highway works 409
8.12 Series 100: Preliminaries 409
8.13 Series 600: Earthworks 412
8.14 Series 500: Drainage and service ducts 429
8.15 Series 1600: Piling and embedded retaining walls 441
8.16 Series 1700: Structural concrete 443
8.17 Series 2700: Accommodation works, works for statutory undertakers, provisional sums and prime cost items 445
8.18 Other works 446
9 Principles of Measurement (International) 449
9.1 Introduction 449
9.2 Section GP: General Principles 452
9.3 Section A: General requirements 457
9.4 Section B: Site work 463
9.5 Section C: Concrete work 477
9.6 Section D: Masonry 479
9.7 Section E: Metalwork 480
9.8 Section F: Woodwork 480
9.9 Section G: Thermal and moisture protection 481
9.10 Section H: Doors and windows 481
9.11 Section J: Finishes 481
9.12 Section K: Accessories 482
9.13 Section L: Equipment 482
9.14 Section M: Furnishings 482
9.15 Section N: Special construction 482
9.16 Section P: Conveying systems 483
9.17 Section Q: Mechanical engineering installations 483
9.18 Section R: Electrical engineering installations 483
Part 3 Measurement Risk in Contract Control 485
10 Contract Control Strategies 487
10.1 Financial control 487
10.2 Measuring the quantities of work done 489
10.3 Provisional quantities and provisional sums 493
10.4 Measuring variations to the contract 494
10.5 Preparing the contractor's cost–value reconciliation 495
10.6 Physical measurement 495
11 Measurement Claims 499
11.1 Claims 499
11.2 E xtra work 502
11.3 Departures from the method of measurement 504
11.4 E rrors in bills of quantities 505
11.5 Procurement issues 510
12 Final Accounts 511
12.1 Purpose 511
12.2 Forms of contract 512
12.3 Lump sum contracts 513
12.4 Measure and value contracts 517
12.5 Daywork accounts 518
12.6 'Final accounts' under the ECC 519
Part 4 Measurement Case Studies 525
13 New Rules of Measurement: NRM1 527
13.1 Project details 527
13.2 Accommodation 527
13.3 Gross internal floor area 529
13.4 Calculating GIFA 529
13.5 Special design features 529
13.6 GIFA measurement rules 531
13.7 Roof 531
13.8 Works cost estimate 534
14 New Rules of Measurement: NRM2 535
14.1 E xcavation in unstable water-bearing ground 535
14.2 NRM2 Director's adjustment 539
15 Civil Engineering Standard Method of Measurement 543
15.1 Canal aqueduct 543
15.2 Ground anchors 543
16 Method of Measurement for Highway Works 549
16.1 Measurement and billing of proprietary manufactured structures 549
16.2 Measurement and billing of structures where there is a choice of designs 551
16.3 Measurement of proprietary manufactured structural elements 554
17 Principles of Measurement (International) 557
17.1 Underpinning 557
18 Builders' Quantities 565
18.1 Lift pit 565
Index 573
