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EOT claims, time-bars, and delay analysis

Field notes for contracts teams and claims consultants

Grounded in published reports, case law, and public arbitration outcomes, not invented statistics. Written for people who read Particular Conditions for a living. 29 articles.

Contract Defenses

5 reasons construction claims get rejected (and how to avoid them)

Late notice, no records, global claims, concurrency, and no entitlement basis. The Engineer's five standard defences, and the habit that neutralises each one before the claim is written.

4 min read9 September 2026
Time-Bars

A plain-English guide to time-bar clauses in construction contracts

What a time-bar is, how to recognise one in your contract, how it differs from a soft notice requirement, and the five things that determine whether it bites.

4 min read9 September 2026
India

AE countersignature: why it matters more than you think

A hindrance entry the Authority Engineer has signed is a shared fact. One they have not is your assertion. The gap between those two decides more Indian EOT claims than any clause.

4 min read9 September 2026
Time-Bars

Back-to-back subcontracts: how to protect your EOT rights as a subcontractor

Your subcontract mirrors the main contract's time-bars downward, usually with a shorter window so the main contractor can pass your notice up. One event, two clocks, and the second one is yours to lose.

4 min read9 September 2026
Quantum

EOT vs prolongation cost: understanding the difference

Time and money are argued separately, proved separately, and won separately. Winning one does not win the other. Here is how the two claims relate and where teams conflate them.

4 min read9 September 2026
India

Extension of Time application format under NHAI EPC contracts

The structure an Authority Engineer expects to receive: a covering application, a statement of hindrances, the contractual basis, the period sought, and annexures that match. With a skeleton you can adapt.

4 min read9 September 2026
FIDIC

FIDIC 1999 vs FIDIC 2017: what changed in the claims procedure

The 28-day notice survived. Almost everything around it was rebuilt: a longer detailed-claim window with its own time-bar, a formal agreement-or-determination step, and a claims clause that now binds the Employer too.

4 min read9 September 2026
Contract Defenses

Global claims: why Engineers and courts reject them

A global claim asks for a total without linking each cause to each effect. It is the claim you end up with when the register was not kept. Here is what it is, why it fails, and how to avoid writing one.

4 min read9 September 2026
Liquidated Damages

How to calculate liquidated damages on a construction contract

Rate, period, cap, and the four questions that come before the arithmetic. With a worked example, and the reason a missed notice quietly changes which side of the sum you are on.

4 min read9 September 2026
FIDIC

How to draft an Extension of Time claim under FIDIC

A working structure for the fully detailed claim: eight sections, what goes in each, and the three habits that make an Engineer read it as a claim rather than a complaint.

4 min read9 September 2026
India

How to prepare a hindrance register for NHAI projects

The columns, the discipline, the countersignature, and a template you can copy. Written for the planning engineer who will be asked for this register two years from now.

4 min read9 September 2026
India

How to write an EOT letter to the Authority Engineer

The short protective letter that keeps the right alive: what it must contain, what it must not, and a one-page structure with reference numbering that survives an audit two years later.

4 min read9 September 2026
Quantum

Hudson, Emden, and Eichleay: the three formulas for head office overhead claims

What each formula does, what inputs it needs, what tribunals have said about them, and why a claims tool should name them for the expert to choose rather than calculate them.

4 min read9 September 2026
India

NHAI vs CPWD: how Extension of Time procedures differ

Two families of Indian government contract, two engineers, two vocabularies, and the same hindrance register underneath. Where the procedures diverge and what a team working both needs to keep separate.

4 min read9 September 2026
Delay Analysis

Ramadan and monsoon: how seasonal working hours affect delay calculations

Reduced hours in the Gulf, reduced days in India. Both change how many working days a notice window contains and how much a hindrance actually cost in output. Here is how to model them without overclaiming.

4 min read9 September 2026
Evidence

The 14-category evidence checklist for a winning EOT claim

What a complete claim file contains, category by category, with the question to ask about each. Print it, pin it in the site office, and run it per event.

4 min read9 September 2026
Time-Bars

The contracts manager's guide to surviving notice deadlines without a claims consultant

Eight live projects, three contract families, two weekend profiles, and a consultant you can only afford after the fight begins. A working system for the weeks in between.

4 min read9 September 2026
Delay Analysis

Time Impact Analysis vs Impacted As-Planned: which method applies to your claim

Both insert a delay into a programme and measure the shift. The difference is which programme, and that difference decides whether an Engineer treats the result as evidence or as theory.

4 min read9 September 2026
India

What documents do you need for an EOT claim in India

Fourteen categories of record, ordered by how often their absence sinks a claim. Which ones the site must create as they go, and which can be collected later.

4 min read9 September 2026
Time-Bars

What happens if you miss the 28-day notice period under FIDIC

On the strict reading, the entitlement is extinguished. Here is what that actually means, the arguments contractors reach for afterwards, and why most of them fail.

4 min read9 September 2026
Explainers

What is EOT in construction? A plain-English explainer

Extension of Time, explained from first principles: why it exists, what it does and does not give you, how it is claimed, and the one deadline that decides most of them.

4 min read9 September 2026
India

Why Indian infrastructure claims reach arbitration years late (and how to prevent it)

Contractor claims against NHAI worth Rs 88,100 crore over five years, roughly 36 percent of value awarded on settled cases, and a system that only starts documenting when the fight is already formal.

4 min read9 September 2026
Evidence

Why your site WhatsApp group is actually your best evidence source

Timestamped, geolocated, photographed, and written before anyone was thinking about a claim. The site group is contemporaneous evidence in its purest form. Here is how to preserve it properly.

4 min read9 September 2026
Time-Bars

FIDIC Sub-Clause 20.1: the 28-day notice window, explained properly

A January 2026 Privy Council ruling just confirmed, again, that this clause means exactly what it says. Here is how the clock actually runs, and where it usually gets missed.

8 min read2 September 2026
India

The hindrance register: India's real standard for proving delay

NHAI is winning arbitration after arbitration on the strength of its own documentation. Here is what a hindrance register needs to contain to hold up the other way.

9 min read27 August 2026
Industry Data

Construction disputes are getting bigger. Here is what the data shows

The average US construction dispute is now worth $60.1 million. The three causes behind most of them have not changed in a decade.

7 min read20 August 2026
Delay Analysis

Time Impact Analysis, Windows, or As-Planned vs As-Built: which delay method fits your claim

The SCL Protocol lists six accepted ways to prove a delay's effect on completion. They are not interchangeable, and picking the wrong one weakens a good claim.

8 min read13 August 2026
Contract Defenses

Concurrent delay: the defense every engineer eventually raises

It is the single most argued doctrine in delay claims, and most contractors only learn how it works after someone has already used it against them.

7 min read6 August 2026
Liquidated Damages

The real cost of a missed notice: liquidated damages, explained in numbers

A missed 28-day window does not just lose you the extension. It can quietly convert a genuine excusable delay into a culpable one, LD clause and all.

6 min read30 July 2026