1. Bills of Quantities
Introduction to FIDIC
- Bills of Quantities -

2. Definitions
Contract Dictionary: ‘A detailed list giving descriptions of all work to be done, materials to be supplied and contractor’s services to be provided in order to complete a Contract’
Quantities set out in the BoQ are the estimated Quantities of Work
Clause 12.3: Evaluation – the Engineer agrees or determines the contract price by the evaluation of each item of work, applying the re-measurement agreed, and the appropriate rates or prices for the item
Bills of Quantities need to be accurate and produced to a consistent standard and order

3. Key standardisation points
Clause 12.2:
Measurement shall be made of the net actual quantity of each item of the Permanent Works, and
The method of measurement shall be in accordance with the Bill of Quantities or other applicable schedules

4. Key standardisation points
Provision shall be made for the amounts inserted on each page to be totalled and carried to a summary of each part of the Bill of Quantities and for the total of each Part Summary to be carried to the Grand Summary
The Grand Summary shall contain a tabulation of the parts of the Bill of Quantities.
General contingency (the General Contingency Allowance), if required, shall be included in the Grand Summary.
Provision shall be made for insertion of the total amounts brought forward from the Part Summaries, the amount of the General Contingency Allowance, if any.
Highly indicated the extensive use of “Excell” spreadsheets in drafting the Bills of Quantities as it generates a tool that can be used in further phases of project implementation

5. Unit Rates in the BoQ
Unit Rates can not be changed during the contract implementation
An escalation Clause/ Formula, may however be included in the contract for covering inflation rates, etc.
Beside that, there is the instrument foreseen by Sub-Clause 13.7 – Adjustments for Changes in Legislation. This Sub-Clause allows for the Contract Price to be adjusted by taking into account increase/decrease of costs due to Legislation changes, after the Base Date (28 days prior to offers submission deadline)
Though above instruments allows a Contract Price modification, the unit rates themselves, do not change

6. New Unit Rates in the BoQ
In some exceptional cases, due to large percentage of change in quantities, unit rates may be amended
In case a new item is defined, New Unit Rates will be agreed for it, in case no specified Unit Rate or Price is appropriate because the item of work is not of a similar character, or is not executed under similar conditions, as any item in the Contract
In such cases, existing Unit Rates or Prices for other items, close to the newly identified, will be used for determining a New Unit Rate or Price

7. Measurement Methods Measurement Methods may comprise:
principles for measurements in the Preambles to the BoQ
a publication that specifies measurement principles and is incorporated into the BoQ
Each item of the Works is to be measured in accordance with such measurement principles/ method, which take precedence over the general principle
It is very important that BoQs issued to Tenderers include accurate quantities and item descriptions of the works defined in the Drawings and in the Specifications
For making easier the cross-reference, it is highly indicated to use codes for the Works items, which will allow to easier identify an item in the various documents

8. Measurement
As well as the Technical Specifications, BoQs are divided on different categories of works.
Very useful the use of standard national or international measurement methods, with or without additional measurement preambles
Multi-disciplinary projects may require particular methods of measurement
Above all, it is highly indicated to use consolidated items, for finalised operations, rather than a large number of items, for each step of the execution of a certain work
All items must be correlated with Technical Specifications/ Drawings that define the works

9. Measurement of Design Quantities
The measurement for BoQs will come from:
manual measurement from drawings – not accurate
electronic measurement
bulk measurement from design programs, e.g. earthworks quantities
from previous schemes using identical details for some aspects of the design

10. BoQs Format
The BoQ is generally an A4 size document set out within columns
Item number/ code
Item description
Measurement Unit (m, t, sqm, etc)
Estimated (Design) Quantity
Unit Rate/ Price
Amount (to two decimals)

11. BoQs Format
BoQ spreadsheets should allow for the amounts obtained for each item, to be totalled and carried out to a summary of each part of the BoQ and for the total of each Part Summary to be carried to the Grand Summary
The Grand Summary will contain a tabulation of the above parts of the BoQ
Grand Summary will also indicate a General Contingency Allowance – 10 – 15% of the Works price
Grand Summary may indicate Taxes, VAT, etc, but these are non-eligible expenditure in the case of EU financed projects

12. Electronic BoQs
Electronic documents processing is now used through various appropriate computer software, in spreadsheets format (e.g. Excell)
Electronic formats may be used throughout the whole construction period for:
tender evaluation
Engineer’s estimation of executed works
interim payments
incorporation of changes
final account

13. Schedules of Payments (Yellow Book)
Clause 14.4 of Yellow Book
Provides instalments in which the Contract Price will be paid
Instalments quoted in Schedule of Payments shall be the estimated contract values of executed Works
Recommendable that payments are made against achieved milestones, i.e. by reference to actual progress of Works, rather than at certain fixed periods, which would create little if any incentive for the Contractor to keep up the works programme
In case of limited actual progress of Works comparing to the one on which Schedules of Payments was based, Engineer may make Determinations (Clause 3.5) to agree revised payment instalments