文章“Fixing Construction’s Fixed-Price Conundrum” definitely identified a critically important issue that materially impacts continued successful utilization of design-build and P3 approaches in North America.

The demonstrated negative impact on construction of DB and P3 fixed-price procurement, exacerbated by unreasonable and imbalanced contractual risk allocation, has another important negative by-product—the frequency and severity of professional liability claims asserted by design-builders against consulting engineer subconsultants. Significantly, many derive from the same problems and challenges discussed in the article. The trickle-down effect of fixed-price and imbalanced risk allocation on consulting engineers warrants equal attention.

在过去的十年中，针对P3和DB项目中针对咨询工程师的设计建设者专业责任索赔急剧上升。18luck官网

这种趋势非常令人担忧。我对造成的概括极为谨慎，但是基于或激发主张的基础通常是P3S中的所有者和特许权分配不公平的风险分配，或者在DBS中的所有者和设计构建者。该设计构建者无法寻求针对其上游缔约合作伙伴的追索权，从而对其咨询工程师提出了专业责任索赔的机制。

关于P3和DBS中工程师的有关索赔经验直接而显着源于固定价格问题所解决的根源。

The converged realities and negative consequences of aggressive and highly competitive pre-award pricing (with inadequate design development contingency) in the context of fixed-price/imbalanced risk typically are disguised and transposed into a professional liability claim. The engineer’s conceptual or preliminary pre-award design or studies, investigations or recommendations did not meet the standard of care, resulting in cost overruns that the design-builder is not able to recover from the owner.

The design-builder’s pre-award failures to identify and assess design development and related risks (and adequately price and carry contingency for them) often provides an important part of the defense or explanation of claims, but it is equally true that fixed-price and uneven risk allocation are significant underlying factors and reasons impelling them.

尽管最近在这种说法背景下为咨询工程师提供咨询工程师的胜利，但对于承包商和工程师来说，这种趋势根本是不可持续的。ENR文新利luck章为此提供了令人信服和令人信服的证据。我

Ndustry不应将法院视为主要解决方案。它主要是主人。在这种情况下，承包商通常是设计建造的领导者，咨询工程师通常是对手，但他们对固定价格P3和DB合同设置中的不公平风险分配有一个普遍关注。

在过去的十年中，业主在承包商之间具有重大竞争和P3和DB项目的人工固定价格成本的优势和利益。18luck官网最近的趋势显然沿着截然不同的方向发展。

业主需要获取有关余额在风险分配中的重要性的信息，并重新校准采购和合同实践。在过去的几年中，我已经预测，除非某些东西从根本上改变DB和P3，否则将有设计和施工人员伤亡。公众意识是避免这种后果的重要一步。感谢您发表的出色文章，以提高人们的意识。

David J. Hatem，PC
Boston, Mass.
David J. Hatem is a partner in the law firm of Donovan Hatem LLP and chair of its professional practices group. He also teaches at Northeastern and Tufts University engineering schools and is author of several books on project risk management and liability risk exposure. Hatem can be reached atDHatemPC@donovanhatem.com.