In a bid to reduce occurrences of design reworks that lead to wastage and inefficiency, the government is considering to test collaborative contracting models for its construction projects, reported Channel NewsAsia.
At present, most of the public contractual arrangements in Singapore follow work procedures that are linear in nature. “So the risks are passed down from owner (and) developer to architect, to engineer, to contractor and then to the sub-contractor,” said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong.
Given that the requirements of construction project are becoming more complex and varied, Wong feels that the current work process is “outdated”.
One method to improve this is to facilitate collaborative contracting by involving contractors and engineers during the project’s initial stage, he explained, so that these experts can provide suggestions on design portions that need fine-tuning prior to the start of construction.
“(When) all team members are bound together contractually, they share risks and rewards based on the achievement of the goals,” said Wong, adding that the United States and Hong Kong are also piloting different contracting models that enable more collaboration.
“We will study how we can pilot some of these collaborative contracting models in our public sector projects – hopefully this will also encourage the private sector to follow suit.”
To promote collaboration, the authorities are studying ways to enhance the usage of modern tools like the Building Information Modelling (BIM), which lets construction professionals view digital simulations of building plans and detect design issues upfront.
While there has been progress in adopting the use of this technology, there are still “a lot of coordination and operational issues”, especially in its handover from architects to contractors downstream.
Wong said this yesterday (31 May) to an audience consisting of around 700 engineers and architects who attended the first conference jointly organised by the Association of Consulting Engineers Singapore and the Board of Architects.
Among the guests is Beca Asia Emeritus Chairman Lee Chuan Seng, who agrees with Wong on the need for collaborative contracting. “If you have alliancing, all that redesign work disappears because the architects and engineers design exactly as the contractor will want to build it.”
“It will definitely be helpful if there is a system in which we can have a fair system of allowing contractors to participate at the design stage… They would then be aware of what the issues are and can contribute to solutions,” added A D Lab Director Warren Liu.
This article was edited by Denise Djong.
