Continental Europe

Continental Europe produced its lowest average value of disputes ($24.5 million) and time taken to resolve them (15.6 months) since 2016, although there was an uptick in the number of disputes compared to 2018. The region continued to see growth in construction in 2019, but research indicates that growth will be slowing down. The market is still performing very well, and this plateau is expected after many years of growth for the region. Many countries are in the midst of or embarking on major infrastructure projects. This is consistent with our survey results which indicate the transportation market experienced the most disputes for 2019, which included highways, bridges, mass transit, airports and rail.

According to the Arcadis International Construction Costs 2020 Report, the volatility of the prices of commodities will continue to impact the European construction market. In addition, that report indicates concerns around funding of ongoing and planned major infrastructure projects for the future in Europe.

The key element in determining whether a dispute's outcome was a success was the ability to manage client/stakeholder's initial expectations. This is consistent with this year's report theme, which emphasizes the criticality of collaboration between project participants in the dispute resolution process.

Survey respondents indicated the most common form of early resolution was settlement following proceeding to trial. This confirms a clear trend over the past few years to avoid litigation and control the outcome as much as possible.

Survey respondents have indicated a greater use of Dispute Review and/or Dispute Adjudication Boards. The time taken to resolve disputes using dispute boards is typically considered to be quicker than arbitration or litigation processes.