Virus stops play
Following on from Colin’s blog about the contractual implications of tightening restrictions on non-essential travel around the world, I thought I’d start a thread for any interesting updates on the impact to us all. (Here is the NEC article I commented about but couldn’t link).
Phase 3 for the most part are able to work from home to a greater or lesser degree but how is it affecting Phase 2? And how much work will there be for design offices, especially the temporary works houses, if on site activity dries up?
My main site in the City has closed today but the project team are still active from home and they haven’t mentioned any intention of slowing down on the planning side so all is still go here. I have heard of one or two smaller projects in our office cancelling design work but as of Monday morning we have a full workload for the whole office – we will see how long that lasts.
It has been interesting in London to note the political views on construction as ‘key workers’. The PM seems to think construction counts as worthwhile but the Mayor of London not so much. It seems agreed however that national infrastructure projects will be allowed to continue so anyone embedded in Tideway, HS2, Crossrail, Highways England, (Hinkley I imagine?) etc should have a chance to keep some money trickling in.
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Interesting that the article doesn’t mention cl 6.1.(19) and the final Compensation event category Force majeure ;Force majeure expressly includes a’ epidemic’ It seems to point to X2, the impact of changed legislation. Such clause may or may not have been included whereas CL 19 is embedded?
I’d have thought that the impact and questions about it might feature in reviews for a while
HS2 Euston Station Enabling Works
Skanska (Main Contractor) are continuing on site and contributing to the Mayor of London’s frustration of people still commuting into the capital. We (Atkins, Lead Designers) are still fully committed to fulfilling our contractual obligations to Skanska and are actively bidding for more packages of work. We are now fully working from home with our project/temporary design office physically closed (this was pretty seamless as everybody has laptops and many work 1 or 2 days a week from home anyway). Network Rail (the Client) are also fully working from home.
The only pauses in tempo have been while Skanska see how we as a design office have reacted to working from home, which we seem to have proved to both them and Network Rail, and while Network Rail assessed the wider picture (which was the case anyway during the uncertainty of the extend of HS2).
If work was to stop on site, from the Atkins side this matters little. The vast majority of the ‘workers’ in the design office (pretty much everybody non-management) are only on 1 week contracts, they will simply be let go at the end of the week if they can’t be redeployed. The permanent members of staff (the majority of which have taken a 20% pay cut for 3 months) will be redeployed to other projects and as Atkins is part of the SNC-Lavalin Group, this may be in other countries that are not so affected at this time.
As for me, I will probably be one of the last in the electrical team left, as I am 100% profit (charged at £50.74/hr) they make many times more £££ off me than any of the other electrical designers who they have to pay. Redeployment for myself would be difficult, as I have only met and been integrated into the project/temporary Euston Station team, but not impossible.
The O&G industry had discussions with the government and workers travelling to Aberdeen to mobilise offshore have to carry a letter from BP explaining their role and requirement. They have to arrive 3 days prior to mobilisation and isolate in accommodation locally prior to their flight. Offshore they have down manned to ensure they have single man cabins and space for isolating individuals who start to show symptoms.
This has played merry hell with some projects as if key trades test positive it can hold up work whilst replacements are found.
The biggest impact for O&G as many of you will have seen is the drop in oil price which is causing large scale review of all portfolios. It is especially tough for the North Sea as production costs are that much higher than the US and middle east.