Reading & Re-reading Contract Documents

Presupposing you have a full set of Contract Docs the next step is to read through them.

My preference is to make a hardcopy (drawings in A1 or even A0 but not A3), as these can be annotated by you as and when anything comes to mind.

The need then is to almost constantly read through them whenever there are some quiet moments on the Project.

In the same way as reading through a recipe, you cannot be expected to read through once or twice and have everything memorized, and when in the midst of a specific task, will constantly refer to the passage of most relevance.

However, the hope in reading through, constantly, even with the most mundane of text, there is always the possibility that one will have recently read something about a topic that all of a sudden presents itself on site.

That way, rather than being faced with reading through the corpus of Contract Docs, one can "zoom in" more quickly to the pertinent section or passage that was still fresh in one's mind and seemed relevant to the situation encountered.

It is joked that it isn't what you know that counts, but who you know.

However, the contention is that it's what you know about who you know that counts and in this instance, with the "who" being the situation encountered, being aware of something in an obscure part of the Contract Docs that others may well have missed can help put you in a more favourable position and at least provide your Employer with an alternative proposal.

From grades of Concrete, to Engineer's Overtime, Employer's Risks and requirements of whether one Party "may", "will" or "must" to name a few, such rereading of Contract Docs can unearth alternative interpretations that need to be brought to light in view of possible punitive courses of action being brought by one Party on to another.

If in doubt, ask one of your peers to give their view on something and, if needs be, certainly if an ambiguity is seemingly apparent, raise it formally as soon as possible,