Admeasurement
Civil Engineering Procedure 7th Edition, published by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2016, suggests that admeasurement is the ‘…apportioning of quantities or costs’.
The term ‘admeasurement’ is thought to have originated in the ICE Conditions of Contract measurement clauses, where it referred to establishing the difference between the final quantity of work carried out and the quantity originally anticipated.
There is a subtle difference between admeasurement and remeasurement, in that remeasurement refers to the entire process of measuring again the quantities of work undertaken, whereas admeasurement refers only to the difference between the estimated quantity and the actual quantity.
Admeasurement contracts are commonly used on civil engineering projects.
Rates are provided in the contractor’s tender, either as part of the priced bill of quantities, or within a schedule of rates. Then the actual quantities of work carried out are measured and the rates applied to those quantities. The contractor is paid for the actual work they have done. As a result, the quantities paid for may vary from the original estimates.
This is common in situations where the type of works required can be described in reasonable detail, but the amount cannot. For example, excavation works where the quantity of excavation required is difficult to assess until after the works have begun.
Where there is just a schedule of rates, rather than a bill of quantities, approximate quantities may be provided to allow the contractor to estimate the amount of work required, but there is no guarantee that that quantity will be required, and so appropriate rates are sometimes difficult to determine.
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