30th August 2004, 06:29 PM
This accords pretty much with other professions - I was in architecture for 30 years before my mid-life crisis led me to wonder what people did 2000 or more years ago. Worryngly though I am quite intrigued by archaeological project management.
If commercial archaeology tenders resemble construction in any way, I would expect site fixtures - bogs, hutting, fencing, welfare facilities (that means another hut) and plant to be indentified as what we call Preliminaries. Thus, if there a legitimate claim for extension of time to the contract, the additional costs are already identified.
Personal tools would not be. A tradesperson would be expected to provide their own specialist tools (and boots) - however stuff like mattocks and shovels would indeed come out of general overheads - the equivalent of the digger's rate.
However in construction an area of say brick wall is measured in the Bills and the tendering firms pice it per square metre. This rate includes all necessary labour. I presume that archaeological tenders similarly do not usually actually quote staff rates but such rates are used to calculate the price to dig a hole? In other words they are fixed price tenders?
I was interested in the point about weather. A construction firm can claim an extension of time for Exceptionaly Adverse Weather. Clearly this varies according to the time of year and location, and he has to allow for a reasonable amount of bad weather in his programme. If such provision is not made in archaeological contracts, perhaps it should be?
If commercial archaeology tenders resemble construction in any way, I would expect site fixtures - bogs, hutting, fencing, welfare facilities (that means another hut) and plant to be indentified as what we call Preliminaries. Thus, if there a legitimate claim for extension of time to the contract, the additional costs are already identified.
Personal tools would not be. A tradesperson would be expected to provide their own specialist tools (and boots) - however stuff like mattocks and shovels would indeed come out of general overheads - the equivalent of the digger's rate.
However in construction an area of say brick wall is measured in the Bills and the tendering firms pice it per square metre. This rate includes all necessary labour. I presume that archaeological tenders similarly do not usually actually quote staff rates but such rates are used to calculate the price to dig a hole? In other words they are fixed price tenders?
I was interested in the point about weather. A construction firm can claim an extension of time for Exceptionaly Adverse Weather. Clearly this varies according to the time of year and location, and he has to allow for a reasonable amount of bad weather in his programme. If such provision is not made in archaeological contracts, perhaps it should be?