Our team works hard to ensure your project
is completed on time and on budget.
Our wide range of services include:
• Asphalt paving
and repairs
• Parking lot overlays
• New parking lot
construction
• Pothole repairs
• Catch basin and
manhole repairs
• Asphalt sealing
• Rubberized crack filling
• Line painting
• Power sweeping and
parking lot cleaning
• Parking block installation
• Parking lot snow removal
• Sidewalk snow removal
• Liquid ice melt application
• Seasonal maintenance
20104 107 Avenue NW, Edmonton, AB T5S 1W9
780-458-3304 www.saplm.ca
possibly extending over the entire life of
a project and potentially with changing
implications depending on the project
phase. A one-time notice may not be
sufficient or even appropriate. Instead,
parties may need to consider regular
reporting and updates on an ongoing
basis, which may be more useful, and
establishing a protocol under their post-
COVID-19 contracts for how relief may
be provided.
Contentious issues and disputes
Time to revisit existing disputes? The
COVID-19 pandemic has led to temporary
court closures across the country.
While courts have now expanded the
scope of hearings that may proceed
remotely, parties can expect delays in
seeking relief from a court now and
into the foreseeable future. Risk profiles
have also shifted in light of the pandemic.
Many construction companies
already felt the strain of cash flow issues
before the pandemic. Parties may take
a hard look at existing disputes against
this backdrop and may be more open
to resolving longstanding disputes and
prioritizing getting to completion, as
opposed to engaging in behaviour that
may delay payment and completion.
These forces may create new opportunities
for settlement or for re-opening
dialogue between parties.
Time to consider post-pandemic disputes?
A flood of project disputes relating
to delays, cost overruns and other
COVID-19-related claims is inevitable.
Parties will need, as usual, to prove
their claims and demonstrate mitigation
efforts. Now more than ever parties
should be reviewing current recordkeeping
practices, addressing gaps and,
where possible, introducing innovation
and improvements that will carry over
to future projects. Given the earlier comments
on drafting to address COVID-19,
there will likely be more disputes on
the characterization of the impacts of
COVID-19 and the proper application of
contract provisions relating to changes
C O N S T R U C T I O N L AW
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been
a trend in industry towards moving COVID-19 out of the
force majeure and other clauses to its own section.
ALBERTA HEAVY Quarter 1 2021 45
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