In past articles, we have examined several contract structures used to establish different approaches to construction management, including differences in how the owner, construction manager, and trade contractors are connected contractually. The stipulated price contract for trade contractors, CCDC 17, addresses another part of that structure by establishing the agreement between the owner and an individual trade contractor.
CCDC 17 is a standard contract between an owner and a trade contractor for the performance of a defined portion of construction work at a single, pre-determined stipulated price. The trade contractor is responsible for completing the contracted work for that price regardless of the actual costs incurred in performing the work. This provides the owner with price certainty for each contracted scope while allowing the overall project to be divided among multiple trade contracts.
The contract is specifically intended for use with the CCDC 5A construction management method; under this arrangement, the owner enters into contracts directly with the various trade contractors, while the construction manager provides advisory services and administers and oversees those contracts on the owner’s behalf. This structure is an important distinction between CCDC 5A and CCDC 5B. Under CCDC 5A, the owner retains the contractual relationship with the trade contractors through CCDC 17. Under CCDC 5B, the construction manager assumes direct contractual responsibility for construction and engages the trades under its own contracts. The choice between these approaches therefore affects both the distribution of contractual responsibility and the owner’s involvement in managing the construction work.
CCDC 17 also supports the staged procurement characteristic of construction management. Construction does not necessarily have to wait until every component of the project has been fully designed. As individual scopes become sufficiently defined, they can be tendered and awarded to trade contractors through separate procurement processes. The resulting CCDC 17 contracts establish the stipulated price and contractual requirements for those individual portions of the work. This allows construction to progress in stages while remaining within a broader construction management framework. Further, the contract establishes the administrative framework for carrying out the trade contractor’s work, including requirements relating to the contract documents, payment, changes, construction scheduling, supervision, review and inspection, allowances, insurance, contract security, and warranty obligations. These provisions provide a consistent contractual structure for individual trade packages while allowing the scope and price of each package to reflect the requirements of the particular project.
CCDC 17 has a specific role within the broader CCDC family. Its stipulated price structure gives each trade package a defined contractual basis, while the construction management arrangement allows those packages to be procured and coordinated as the project develops. This provides an efficient contractual mechanism through which individual trade contractors can participate in a construction management project.
The next article in this series will examine CCDC 30, the integrated project delivery contract. While CCDC 17 organizes separate owner-trade contractor relationships within a construction management structure, CCDC 30 takes a more integrated approach by bringing multiple project participants into a collaborative contractual framework.
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