Ancillary contractual practices By the end of the 1990s the construction industry had tried out a variety of permutations

of construction procedures, most of them being only ancillary practices attached to one or other of the main approaches already described above. The following list gives the new terms most frequently used and their meaning. Few are radically new practices, and some had a phase of popularity which has already declined. Alliancing A term principally applying to a contractor who joins with one or more other contractors to undertake a contract for some project. One firm is the lead firm; the others are often specialists. An example is an EPC Contract (Engineer, Procure, Construct Contract) under which a firm of consulting engineers may be the lead firm (see Section 2.6(c)) with a construction contract or and plant suppliers associated. Other setups are possible, such as when a construction contractor or plant supplier is the lead firm and uses consu lting engineers to design the structures required. Alliancing is also sometimes used as an alternative name for Partnering. Benchmarking A procedure under which a promoter (or manufacturer or contractor) compares his performance achievements on projects with the methods and achievements on similar projects carried out earlier by him, or carried out by some other promoter. It involves comparing such things as project cost per unit of some kind; time and cost over-runs against that intended; disputes and troubles encountered, etc. Best Value Contracts The requirements placed by government on UK local authorities in place of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) (see below). Tenders for construction or provision of services now have to be chosen not only on bid price, but also on the quality of the materials and services offered, as affecting the estimated operational and maintenance costs of a project and its whole life costing basis. estimated length of life. This is evaluating bids on a Competitive dialogue Pre-bid negotiations initiated by a promoter who, not having defined his project requirements in any detail, invites outline proposals from contractors for a design and build project as part of the prequal ification stage for prospective bidders. Criticisms of the procedure are that the promoter gets useful advice on design alternatives without paying a proper design fee for same, and that the promoter may choose the best design submitted by one contractor but use another contractor to execute it.