On most housing schemes, the principal contractor role rests with a main contractor who carries the duty across the full construction programme. There are schemes, however, where the developer chooses to procure the groundworks package separately, often because the groundworks programme runs ahead of the main build by months. In those circumstances, the question of who carries the principal contractor duties under CDM 2015 for the groundworks phase becomes operationally important.
There are two common arrangements. The first is for the developer to act as principal contractor for the groundworks phase, with internal project management taking on the duty. The second is for the groundworks contractor to act as principal contractor for the groundworks phase, with the duty transferring at the appropriate handover to the main contractor when they arrive on site.
The first arrangement makes commercial sense in some situations but exposes the developer’s own team to a workload they may not be set up to carry. Discharging principal contractor duties under CDM properly requires meaningful technical capability, including writing and maintaining a construction phase plan, ensuring the welfare arrangements are compliant, coordinating health and safety across subcontractors, and managing the interface with utilities and neighbouring sites. For a developer project team that is set up for commercial and programme management rather than construction safety leadership, this is an unfamiliar load.
The second arrangement, with the groundworks contractor taking on the principal contractor role, transfers the duty to a party who is operationally set up to carry it. Globe Civil Engineering offers this arrangement on schemes where it makes sense. The arrangement is documented at contract stage, with the duties transferred explicitly and the handover to a main contractor planned in the construction phase plan.
For developers, this can substantially simplify the early-stage construction phase. The construction phase plan for the groundworks duration is owned by GCE. The CDM file, welfare provision, public interface, traffic management and neighbouring site coordination are all managed by GCE. The developer retains the client duty under CDM, which is the appropriate level of duty for that role, but does not have to discharge the principal contractor duties directly.
The arrangement also produces a cleaner handover when the main contractor arrives. The construction phase plan that GCE has been maintaining transfers to the main contractor with the file in good order. The CDM file at the handover point already reflects the actual works, the actual ground conditions encountered, the actual amendments and the actual residual risk profile for the subsequent phase. The incoming main contractor does not have to rebuild the picture.
This single-point responsibility model is most useful where the groundworks phase is materially separate from the main build, either by time or by location. Phased developments where bulk earthworks happens months before plot construction begins are the most common case. Infrastructure-led schemes where roads, sewers and utilities are installed before the developer brings forward plot tenders are another. In each case, the duration of the principal contractor role is bounded and the value of consolidating it with the active contractor on site is high.
Where the arrangement does not make sense is on schemes where the groundworks and the main build are concurrent, where the groundworks contractor is one of many subcontractors working simultaneously. In those cases, a single principal contractor over all packages is the right structure, and GCE works in that arrangement as a specialist subcontractor under another party’s principal contractor duty.
For developers, the relevant questions at planning stage are about the structure of the programme. Does the groundworks phase run independently of the main build for a material period? If so, who is best placed to act as principal contractor for that period? Where the answer is GCE, the contractual arrangement is straightforward and the operational benefits to the developer’s team are significant.
The decision is not about price. It is about the appropriate allocation of CDM duty to the party best placed to discharge it. Made early at the right point in the procurement process, it can materially simplify the developer’s early-stage workload and result in a cleaner handover when the main build phase commences.
Talk to Globe Civil Engineering To discuss single-point procurement of groundworks with principal contractor duties on your scheme, contact Globe Civil Engineering on 01223 890727 or email enquiries@theglobegroup.co.uk.
