A Study On The Disputes Alert And Resolution In EPC Contract

General contract is becoming the main model of engineering construction. With the development of general contract in engineering, the problems and the lost of claims and disputes are more than before. The main disputes, disputes alert and settlement in EPC contract are analyzed in this thesis, with the purpose to reduce the times disputes happening and lost caused by disputes.The modes of EPC in common use are introduced, and the differences between EPC and Turnkey, EPC and Design-build are compared, then the application scope of EPC Mode is given. Nine disputes are found in this thesis, which direct the disputes management by parties.The procedure of dispute development and dispute reasons are analyzed with model of Dispute development and resolution. The situation of problems, results of problems resolving and situation of disputes are studied. The reasons of disputes are uncertainty of engineering, contractual problems and opportunistic behavior. The process of how these three factors cause disputes are analyzed, then prevent measures are given for reducing their influence.Dispute alert in EPC contract is introduced , in which partnering and early warning are used as instruments., in order to reduce the times disputes happening and lost caused by disputes. Based on disputes alert, dispute resolution mechanism is set up, in which partnering is used to reduce opportunistic behaviors, and early warning is used to reduce the influence of project uncertainty and contract problems. The procedure of disputes-settling of four commonly used project contract(FIDIC,NEC,JCT and project contract in AIA) are compared, for composing the suitable disputes-settling procedure in EPC contract. Finally,some suggestions are given for resolving disputes better.