Construction programme
A construction programme is the project time schedule (trade sequence, durations, dependencies, critical path). It is the evidence any extension-of-time claim depends on.
Ask Chalkline about this →A construction programme is the detailed time schedule for a building project: the sequence of trades, the duration of each activity, the dependencies between them, and the critical path that runs through the whole job. It is how a builder plans and tracks the build, from slab pour through to practical completion, and it is the document a delay claim stands or falls on.
The programme is the basis for any extension of time (EOT) claim. An EOT is only justified where a delay event pushes a critical-path activity, the longest chain of dependent tasks, because only those delays move the finish date. A week of rain that only held up landscaping with two weeks of float does not justify an EOT; a week’s hold on the frame, which is on the critical path, does. Without a programme you cannot show which it was.
This is where builders without a formal programme get hurt. In a delay dispute, an adjudicator or court gives little weight to a claim for “ten lost days” backed by nothing but a builder’s estimate; the programme is the evidence that ties the delay to the critical path and quantifies its effect on completion. Keep a baseline programme from the start, update it as the job runs, and record delay events against it, because that record is what supports an EOT, and the defence against liquidated damages. See critical path.
Also known as: Programme, construction schedule, project programme, Gantt chart.
Category: Project management / Contracts.
Related
See also
References
- NSW Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (verified 2026-05-07)
- HIA: Contracts Online (extension of time provisions) (verified 2026-05-07)
Last updated: 2026-05-30. Verified: 2026-05-07. Quarterly review for currency.