New backers for ‘BIM-ready’ PPC 2000 contract

New backers for the PPC 2000 form of contract, which is structured around early contractor involvement, project partnering and input from the supply chain, hope that the 14-year-old contract will now be taken up by a wider audience of clients.

A joint venture between the Association for Consulting and Engineering (ACE) and the Association of Consultant Architects (ACA) is to promote the contract and be responsible for future updates and amendments.

The move follows the decision of the contract’s original author, law firm Trowers & Hamlins, to transfer rights to the PPC 2000 suite of contracts to the new joint venture.

PPC 2000 is currently used on around 5-6% of projects in the UK, including three of the four published Government Trial Projects.

PPC 2000 is also said to be the most BIM ready contract available today, and was used on Interserve’s £20m Cookham Wood “early adopter” BIM project without any amendments.

The contract’s pre-construction phase, where members of the project team can add value via early involvement in pricing, risk management, programming and design, is said to be well-aligned to BIM, and the contract also allows the entire project team to be appointed under a single multi-party contract.

Anil Iyer, chief operating officer of ACE, told CM: “The contract offers the ability to speed up partnership agreements and get the contractor involved at an early stage. With our joint venture, members can help to give the contract more prominence and opens up the potential for it to be used by a wider audience.”

However, Iyer said that the ACE/ACA’s endorsement of PPC 2000 did not mean that it was recommending its use over NEC3, increasingly the contract of choice in the public sector. “We’re endorsing the product, but we’re not saying it’s better than NEC3.”

Terry Brown, president of the ACA, said: “PPC2000 and TPC2005 are still ‘hidden gems’ that are used only by sophisticated clients and project teams. In reality, they offer user-friendly systems and clear provisions that are accessible to anyone in the public or private sector.”