Compensable & Excusable Delay

Figure 1 illustrates the comparison of the unimpacted programme, the programme impacted with employer
caused delay events, and the programme impacted with contractor caused delay events. It is a rare
occurrence where a contractor records its own delay events, and this has to be retrospectively developed.
This may be an area where a contract administrator can become more involved during the currency of the
project as opposed to writing all encompassing ‘you’re in delay’ letters. The period of excusable delay
exists where both the contractor and employer caused events to concurrently extend past the completion
date (blue arrow labelled 1) and the period of compensable delay is the extent that the employer event
pushes the completion date beyond the contractor caused event (orange arrow labelled 2). The employer
caused event is driving the completion date.

Excusable and Non-Excusable Delay

Figure 2 illustrates the reverse condition where the contractor delay engulfs the employer delay and drives
the completion date. This yields a result where a portion of the delay is excusable (blue arrow labelled 3)
and a portion of the delay is non-excusable and non-compensable (orange arrow labelled 4). The contractor
caused event is driving the completion date.