Construction - Managing a Programme Delay

Recognize and categorize the delay - neutral event, client-caused, or concurrent - and log it against the job record with the date first identified.

Serve formal written notice to the contract administrator within the contract timescales, identifying the relevant event and its likely impact on the programme.

Collect site diaries, weather records, photographs, correspondence, and variation instructions that demonstrate cause, timing, and impact.

Revise the project programme to show the impact of the delay event on the critical path and the revised projected completion date.

Submit the formal EOT claim with programme analysis and supporting evidence, quantifying the extension sought under the relevant contract provisions.

Engage with the contract administrator's review, provide any further information requested, and negotiate the agreed extension if challenged.

Confirm the revised completion date in writing, update sub-contractor programmes, and progress any related loss and expense claim for additional costs.

We issued a verbal delay notice on site but never followed it up in writing, and the client is now threatening liquidated damages for a period we should have had an extension for.

Our delay records are scattered across site diaries, emails, and a shared drive nobody keeps current - compiling an extension of time submission takes weeks and still feels incomplete.

We lost an EOT claim because we could not prove the delay event was on the critical path - our programme had not been updated for two months when we needed to use it.