The standard form construction contract documents published by the American Institute of Architects are used widely throughout the construction industry. With assistance from federal agencies, the AIA created specific construction contract documents, such as the B-108-2009, to address the unique nature of federally-funded and insured projects. This year the AIA issued its once-a-decade revisions to address changes and trends in the industry. While the 2017 revisions d0 not materially alter the documents specifically tailored to federal projects, some of the changes will affect documents regularly used by federal contractors. They included changes in the insurance and indemnification clauses, addition of new limits on contractor claims, and new language addressing the treatment of retainage and the assessment of liquidated damages.

Husch Blackwell’s Brent Meyer prepared this overview of the noteworthy changes in the 2017 edition of the AIA contracts for Law 360.

 

Further reading—

7 Major Revisions To Standard Form Construction Contracts (Dec. 4, 2017)

Good faith and fair dealing puts an end to the “gotcha” in submittal review (June 26, 2017)

The Davis-Bacon Act does not apply to P3 projects (April 7, 2016)