The Research And Apply On The Claims And Claims Opportunity Of Highway Engineering

Contract management is the core of project management, but claims managementis the key of contract management. Engineering claims is an important businessactivity for both owners and contractors in the project implementation process, whoseessence is the redistribution of risk between the two sides. Claim is embodied in thelegal effect of contract, and it plays a significant role in the construction of thecontract.At present, China is at the stage of energetically developing basic transportfacilities. In the process of highway construction contractors will invariably beinvolved in the vital claim issues that refer to the interest of their own. Somecontractors feel numb and frustrated for engineers and owners’ injustice andbreaching activities, which leads to their even more serious behavior and affects theproject schedule and cost badly. If the contractor can claim timely and effective, it ispossible to curb the engineers and owners’ irrational behavior, and it can provideprotection for the implementation of the project. At the same time, because of thesevere competition in the construction market, it has been a common situation that thetender price is lower than pre-tender. In this case, the contractor claim is a necessarymeans for contractors to protect their interests. Analysis of contractor claim is thefirst step to claim. The analysis and identification of claim probability can provideimportant warrants for the contractors’ claim management, and can make the claimswork better. Through the project claims to reduce economic losses can ensure thecontract interests of the two sides. Through the analysis of the highway project claimsand the claims probability from the contractors’ point of view, this study hopes theresearch can help highway construction contractors to enhance their level of claimsmanagement, reduce or transfer the project risk, avoid losses, and obtain the expectedprofits.Based on the experiences summary and theoretical study on the project claimsmanagement at home and abroad, and aiming at the current developing situation ofChina’s domestic claims, this paper illustrates the theory related to the claims ofhighway projects, and analyzes the application of claims probability in the highwayprojects from the points of both theory and practice. This paper can be divided intothe following aspects:The analysis of those theories concerned about highway construction claims management comes first. It includes the systematical elaborations of thecharacteristics of highway construction, the general characteristics and structure ofthe system of highway project claims, the general procedures of highway claimsmanagement, and the construction claims management under the Bill of Quantities.Secondly, from the perspective of systems theory, it analyzes the mechanism ofclaims probability occurred in highway construction. In fact the claims probability isthe result of deviation of real contract from ideal contract. On this basis, it analyzescontractors’ claims probabilities, and points out that claims probabilities are oftenmanifested as interfering incidents. Meanwhile it discusses those interfering incidentsclaims interfere in contractors’ claims in detail.Thirdly, according to the cognition rout from analysis to comprehensiveunderstanding and to analysis again, it discusses the model of analysis, synthesis andidentification of claims based on fuzzy theory by combining with the claimsprobability and ambiguity.Finally, with the "Changhui" road project as an example, it carries on multi-levelanalysis of claims probability, and unfolds a detailed analysis of the factors of claimsprobability buy using the second-chance evaluation model of the low-level claimsprobability. Then it proves that the second-chance evaluation model of the low-levelclaims probability can analyze and identify the real projects and also have goodpracticability and veracity.