Research On The Comprehensive Unit Price Of Variations Determination And Variation Disputes Management

Variation is bound to exist in project construction. However, variation has a significantimpact on cost engineering, so the owners and supervision engineers have to determine theprice accurately. Some laws, regulations and contractual terms carried out the formulation ofthe comprehensive unit price of variations and there are three principles, there is such itemabout appropriate comprehensive unit price in the contract, there is such item about similarprice and there is no item about the price. In fact, the comprehensive unit price of variationdefined in the regulations is not specific, the supervision engineers cannot determine thecomprehensive unit price according to the second and the third principle. The comprehensiveunit price should be defined by the owner and contractor together. Dispute occurred when theowner and contractor can’t reach an agreement on the comprehensive unit price. In order toensure the quality and the cost of the construction and the good relationship with thecontractor, it is necessary to prevent and solve the disputes. The owner and supervisionengineers should defined the second and third principle accurately, and the owner should takeeffective management when the disputes happens to strengthen his ability to manage thechange and ensure his interest. This paper give out some solution to solve the problem above.First, this paper defined the scope of application of “there is such item about similarprice and there is no item about the price” by analyzing the three principles. By analyzing theforming process of similar price, this paper gave the methods to define the comprehensiveunit price caused by the change of material and construction drawing.Second, this paper analyzed the composition of the similar comprehensive unit price,explicited the definition about labor cost, materials cost and operating cost of machinery whenthere is appropriate item or not, provided the method to determine the preferential rate.Through clarifying the management fee rate and profit rate to determine the management feeand profit, thus obtained the cost, the profit, the formula of the comprehensive unit cost.Third, this paper provided two methods for the owner to manage the dispute, add theterms formulated by pre-pricing rule, match the rights, the responsibilities and interestsburdened by contractor.Through the study on the determination of the comprehensive unit price of variations,this paper provided the procedure and applicability about the two methods which can beuseful when there is similar or no items in the contract. The two methods explored in thestudy can not only prevent the occurance of disputes but can solve the dispute. Also, thequality of the construction can be guaranteed, time and price cost by the disputes can besaved.