The construction phase for the development of the Central Berkshire Waste project did not see any significant disputes or delays. The construction of the facilities was due to take three years, and the Procuring Authority had a three-stage step-up payment mechanism. This meant that achieving certain construction milestones related to the two facilities in Reading and the facility in Bracknell affected the unitary payment, with each step-up increasing the portion of the unitary payment that was payable. This payment mechanism structure was in place to incentivise the Project Company to meet their construction milestones on time.

As the Project Company had taken the risk for design and construction, the construction contractor was self-monitoring the construction with the council monitoring "in the background". An independent certifier was also appointed by both the Procuring Authority and the Project Company to verify compliance with the output specifications, monitor progress and approve achievement of the construction milestones.

The risk monitoring system used by the construction contractor adopted a programme-based critical path method. This uses the theory of constraints, which is a methodology for identifying the most important barriers to achieving the goal and then improving that barrier so that it is not a limiting factor any more. The progress was then continuously compared against the contingency time available (or float), whilst managing the risk of one activity or particular area compromising all the contingency available. The construction was completed on time, however it is difficult to assess how much of this was the result of the risk monitoring system employed by the construction contractor.

The councils were cautious not to take on additional risks, which was in line with the standard waste PPP contract they have adopted (the Waste Infrastructure Delivery Programme (WIDP)1 Project Agreement). The councils rarely went further than attending weekly update meetings, and interventions were kept to a minimum as any more pro-active interventions would have been perceived as a precedent by the Project Company and could have implied that the Procuring Authority was taking on construction risk.

The sign-off of completion was eventually formalised following a detailed inspection performed by the Procuring Authority, the Project Company, the construction contractor, the operations contractor and the independent certifier.

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1  The Waste Infrastructure Delivery Programme was established by UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (also commonly known simply as Defra) to support local authorities to accelerate investment in the large-scale infrastructure required to treat residual waste.