Pre-construction information
PCI
The information the client (through the principal designer) must provide to designers and contractors about the project, the site and existing structures, so that risks can be designed out and planned for.
CDM 2015 requires the client to provide pre-construction information as soon as practicable to every designer and contractor being considered for appointment: the project description, the client's arrangements and requirements, the environmental restrictions and existing on-site risks (asbestos surveys, existing services, ground conditions and contamination, structural surveys, adjacent occupiers, traffic), significant design and construction hazards, and the health and safety file from any previous project. The principal designer assembles and coordinates it. It exists so that the contractor pricing the job knows what they are dealing with and can plan the controls, rather than discovering the asbestos on the first day of strip-out.
For a contractor, the pre-construction information is the first thing to ask for when tendering, and its absence is a warning. A tender without an asbestos survey for a pre-2000 building, without service drawings for an excavation package, or without a structural appraisal for a demolition is a tender being priced blind, and the price should say so.
Where it comes from
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 reg.4(4) and reg.11(6); L153 Appendix 2 (contents of pre-construction information).
Questions people ask
What if the client has no pre-construction information?
Ask for it in writing and record the response. Where it does not exist, price for the surveys you need, or make your tender conditional on them. Starting work on a pre-2000 building without an asbestos survey is a breach regardless of what the client did or did not provide.
Pre-construction information, handled on a phone
SiteLynx puts the RAMS, permits, inspections, audits, plant checks and records behind every term in this glossary on the crew's phones, signed on site, with a PDF at the end. 14 days free, no card.
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