Are there any changes to established practice?

Like the existing MCHW, the compiled contract specification shall be made up of (see also GP 110, section 2):

1. the national-specific version of the SHW, which shall be incorporated into a contract as the base specification for the works by reference;
2. the completed Works Specific Requirements templates (in the past, the compiled contract specific appendices were used);
3. all cancelled, substitute or additional requirements to the SHW or WSR as listed in GC 100/WSR/001 which arise from departures from standard.

There is a subtle change to the contractual operation in that the old MCHW uses a “Preamble to the Specification” to define what the contract specification is; in the new MCHW GC 100 is used, which is one of the SHW documents, see also below.

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From the MCHW to the contract documentation

The contract compilation requirements are stated in GP 110. Figure 1 shows the link between the MCHW and the contract documents as described below.

The Specification for Highway Works (SHW) would form the base specification. The Instructions for Specifiers documents give instruction on the compilation of the Works Specific Requirements (WSR), and would not form part of the contract for traditional type contracts. The WSR would be compiled by the Specifier to give the requirements for the specific site or contract.

The combination of the SHW and the WSR would form the contract specification.

The contract specification in combination with the contract drawings and other relevant content would form the contract scope (or works information) to inform on all of the works required for the contract.

The contract scope in combination with the conditions of contract and the pricing documents would form the contract documents. The SHW is brought into the contract using the statement “The contract specification shall be as defined in GC 100“.

Figure 1: Link between MCHW and contract documents

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Key MCHW documents relevant to contract preparation

GP 110 ‘Introduction to the Manual of Contract Documents for Highway Works’ shall be used for the preparation of contracts for:

1. the construction, improvement, maintenance, demolition and disposal of motorway and all-purpose trunk roads for which the Overseeing Organisation is the highway or road authority;
2. all assets located on Overseeing Organisation land within the highway boundary:
3. all assets located on Overseeing Organisation land not within the highway boundary;
4. where appropriate, assets on land leased by the Overseeing Organisation for which the Overseeing Organisation is responsible.

GP 110 includes the implementation requirements for the updated MCHW. It also provides requirements and advice for the compilation of the contract specification using Work Specific Requirements templates.

GP 100 ‘Introduction to the Specification for Highway Works’ defines what the contract specification is. GP 100 has four WSRs that are required to be compiled for all contracts using MCHW, see Mandatory WSRs to be completed for more details.

GP 101 ‘General requirements for the Specification for Highway Works’ gives overarching and default requirements for general aspects including correspondence, documentation, records, quality management, designated standards, product certification schemes, product acceptance schemes, verification and contractor design. All other SHW documents reference back to GP 101.

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Why the old and new MCHW cannot be mixed in a contract

The old and new MCHW cannot be mixed in a particular contract because of the different ways they operate contractually.

In addition, with both the old and new MCHW there are many internal cross-references. There is a lot of interlinking between the various parts of the specification. Those cross-references won’t work if a mixture of old and new were to be used.

Aspects that differ between the two document sets which impact the way they operate in contracts are discussed in the table below. All of these aspects and the cross-referencing and interlinking of the document sets mean that any mixture of the old and new MCHW would lead to a significant contractual ambiguity.

Aspect	Old MCHW	New MCHW
Definition of what the contract specification is	Defined using the Preamble to the Specification which is detailed in Series NG 000 and is required to be reproduced and incorporated into the contract documents	Defined in GC 100
Bringing the Specification for Highway Works (SHW) into a contract	Brought in by reference using the Preamble to the Specification which is detailed in Series NG 000 and is required to be reproduced and incorporated into the contract documents	Brought in by reference in GC 100
Definition of which version of individual parts of the SHW are relevant to the particular contract	Uses Table 0/1 Schedule of Pages and Relevant Publication Dates which is required to be produced by the contract compiler and incorporated into the contract documents.	Uses GC 100/WSR/001 to list the version of each SHW document relevant to the contract.
Contractor obligations	What the Contractor is obliged to do is stated throughout the Clause texts, typically the phrase ‘..the Contractor shall …’ is used	A single requirement is stated in GC 100 that states that all obligations in the SHW are obligations of the Contractor. The requirement text therefore does not use the phrase ‘the Contractor shall …’.
Contract specific specification	Uses Numbered Appendices which are referenced in the Clause texts in the format ‘contract specific Appendix X/XX’	Uses Work Specific Requirements (WSR) which are referenced in the requirement text in the format ‘XC XXX/WSR/0XX’
General aspects that apply to the whole works such as quality management and product certification.	Clause 104 covers these aspects. Relevant requirements in the specification are written on the basis of what is stated in Clause 104	GC 101 covers these aspects. GC 101 is cross-referenced in the relevant requirement texts.
Verification	Testing requirements are required to be included in contract specific Appendix 1/5 (and contract specific Appendix 1/6 for Overseeing Organisation testing). Other verification activities, including checking, measurement, inspections and trials, are detailed across the Series and Clauses	The term ‘verification’ is used to include testing, checking, measurement, inspections and trials etc. Verification requirements are stated throughout the technical documents and WSR. There is cross-reference to GC 101 to give the default, generic requirements for verification activities. (There is no central listing for testing)
Contractor design	Items to be designed by the Contractor are required to be detailed in contract specific Appendix 1/10 along with the required design standards. Requirements for technical approval are covered by Clause 106	Items to be designed by the Contractor are detailed throughout the technical documents and WSR. There is cross-reference to GC 101 to give the default, generic requirements for Contractor design. (There is no central listing for Contractor design)

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