The use of time and cost utility for construction contract award under European Union Legislation

Public Awarding Authorities around the world aim at procuring construction contracts that will achieve project completion within predefined cost, time and quality constraints.Nowadays, national and supranational public works programmes define strict completion dates at the client's risk of losing funding if deadlines are not met. The choice of procurement method is therefore of utmost importance. In most cases, the client's award is based on financial offers only. As the construction time for project completion within funding programme targets is extremely important, it should also be considered as an award criterion. In this paper, the most common award methods are evaluated and a new one is proposed. The award criterion considered is the most economically advantageous tender as defined in the European Union Legislation and takes into account the construction cost and completion time. The evaluation of both financial and time offers is carried out by implementing utility theory. An illustrative example is provided.