ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to compare principal provisions in the Engineering and Construction Contract main contract with those in the Joint Contracts Tribunal main contracts. The New Engineering Contract (NEC) is a new form of construction contract that is radically different from other standard forms. The family of documentation seems comparatively large, when compared with other forms of standard contract and when viewed at first sight in its ‘boxed set’, containing fourteen separate NEC documents, in total around eight hundred pages. Building works usually encounter less uncertainty in the ground but there may be some ‘experienced contractor’ tests waiting for the unwary in the superstructure of many a building contracted under the NEC system. The need for continuous submission of revisions to programmes by the contractor puts the Project Manager in a position of having to respond rapidly to a large amount of information, possibly on large contracts delivered weekly or even more often.
