ABSTRACT
Allocation of soil risks under design and construct contracts for tunneling and other infrastructure projects is a complex issue in the Netherlands. Until now, allocation principles have been derived from traditional construction contract law and practice. Under a traditional contract the client is responsible for design failures and omissions related to soil conditions, subject to the contractor’s duty to warn. Responsibility is shifted towards the contractor under a d&c contract, unless he can prove the impossibility to establish soil risks at the stage the contract was entered into. Dutch construction practice however has shown that this approach leads to serious and inefficient conflict situations, given the unclear status of soil information supplied by the client. Research has provided an alternative soil risk allocation model that could deal with this problem.
