Setting out for a claim

A hydrographic surveyor member of ITIC also carried out land surveys. They were contracted to set-out a shore entry point of a subsea power cable.

The setting out of the entry points was done successfully. They were also required to do the same for the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) rig and its anchor points. They requested the design plan from the contractor in AutoCad format to do so. However, they were only provided with a PDF. The surveyor therefore calculated manually the HDD rig and the anchor points in relation to the entry point.

The anchor points should have been calculated in relation to the drilling entry point, but unfortunately it was calculated off the power cable entry point. Therefore, they set out 18 sheet piles 8 metres in the wrong direction. This was spotted by the lead contractor but only after the sheet pile was installed. The contractor lost 2.5 days of drilling time whilst the situation was rectified.

The contractor submitted a claim for US$ 60,000 which was the lost drilling time and the cost to move the sheeting. ITIC assisted the surveyor by negotiating this down to US$ 30,000 as a proportion of the contractors costs were fixed.