The Contractor made a claim for locating, handling and disposing of asbestos fibres which were found in the ground in multiple locations across the site. The additional costs were originally estimated at around £100k.

Upon discussion surrounding this issue, it was agreed between parties that this issue would be split up, the initial variation request being for all asbestos fibres found up to a certain date in time, and subsequent discoveries would be dealt with as separate variations.

The contractor submitted the claim with all supporting evidence, using what three words to identify the locations, and also provided photo evidence, as well as copy invoices/waste transfer notes. In principal this was acceptable and agreed as a valid variation.

In reviewing the quotation and supporting evidence, we cross referenced the locations of boreholes which had identified asbestos which were within the ground investigation reports, provided as part of the pre-construction information. We even checked these against WhatThreeWords for further confirmation. 

There were a number of locations which we found corresponded, or were within a reasonable distance of the locations so we challenged the Contractor to review the data and re-submit their quotation on this basis. We believed that the contractor should have made reasonable allowance to dispose/uncover asbestos in the ground, especially within those areas where it had already been discovered.

The initial quotation came in around £75k, a challenge on the time allowed to deal with the asbestos, as well as the amount of asbestos itself (where locations matched the GI report), reduced the entitlement to £50k.

A subsequent variation was issued for some further locations, again with some corresponding with locations in the GI report, this resulted in a further £5k reduction.