Analysis of claims in highway construction

Today's construction industry is fast paced, complex, and expensive. Unfortunately, there exist many instances when a project falls behind schedule. Disputes often arise as a result of tight budgets. Contractors normally file claims against the owners in order to recover lost time and money. Although owners and contractors try to settle disagreements as quickly as possible, there are times when a solution cannot be reached to satisfy both parties. Thus, claims management has become an important part of the construction industry. The task of analyzing a construction claim is not easily accomplished. The purpose of this study is to develop an analysis procedure for delay claims. With each claim being unique, the analysis procedure discussed m this thesis is presented in a broad sense. However, there is a detailed discussion of indirect job costs, and, more specifically, home office overhead costs. The focus of the procedure is to provide owners with methods to calculate home office overhead. This topic is approached by the use of examples related to home office overhead calculations.