Abstract

The term claim has become a word of paramount significance on construction projects worldwide. Throughout .the past decade, several research works in Europe and North America have been dedicated to exploring the causes of claims and solutions that would help minimize their occurrence and possibly prevent them. This research is the first of its kind in Egypt, as it attempts to help gain a deeper insight of the status of claims management from the contractors perspective with respect to the Egyptian industrial construction sector. Special attention is given to change order claims, as this research demonstrates them as a major cause of claims in this sector. By the end of the research, strategies for improvement of change order claims management, and hence claims management in general, would be furnished. Claims management in the Egyptian industrial construction sector has been proven to suffer from a variety of pitfalls, including lack of proper notification procedures in public contracts and poor documentation management. This lack of proper documentation management has led over 50% of the sample projects to not obtain change orders, to which they assumed they were entitled. Nearly 30% of the sample projects within this research stated that site personnel must be fully aware of all contractual requirements in order for documentation in the Egyptian industrial sector to be improved. Moreover, the basic cause of change order claims has been documented by nearly 70% of the sample projects to be additional scope of work, which can be attributed to the simultaneous progress of the design and construction works in such a fast track sector. This simultaneous progress results in the owner awarding the contractor additional work during project execution that was not conceived at the beginning of the project prior to contract award. One ofthe most important conclusions of this research is that it was reported that many Egyptian owners and designers were offended from prompt claim notification and documentation procedures on part ofthe contractor. Suggested means for improvement include addressing the issue ofthe owners' offense from prompt claim notifications by the formation of a unified form of conditions for the Egyptian industrial sector. It is suggested that this form of conditions would be enforced by a professional engineering organization of significant authority and jurisdiction within Egypt. Another suggested means of improvement addresses owner-caused delays and suggests that the owner and contractor both share the float associated with the delayed activity through a float-sharing provision in the contract. Finally, the use of information technology systems instead of traditional filing procedures has been suggested as means to improving documentation practices within the sector.

School

School of Sciences and Engineering

Department

Construction Engineering Department

Degree Name

MS in Construction Engineering

Date of Award

6-1-2002

Online Submission Date

2-13-2013

First Advisor

Hassanein, Amr

Committee Member 1

Hassanein, Amr

Committee Member 2

Hosni, Osama

Document Type

Thesis

Extent

106 p.

Rights

The American University in Cairo grants authors of theses and dissertations a maximum embargo period of two years from the date of submission, upon request. After the embargo elapses, these documents are made available publicly. If you are the author of this thesis or dissertation, and would like to request an exceptional extension of the embargo period, please write to thesisadmin@aucegypt.edu

IRB

Not necessary for this item

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