Pacing Delay
A pacing delay can best be described in the context of a project situation. When a contractor is involved in a project and realizes that there is, or will be, an owner caused delay to the critical path, a contractor may decide to slow down selected work activities in an effort to “keep pace with the owner’s delay”.
The thinking typically expressed by contractors is “Why should I hurry up and wait?” The argument, when analyzed in the legal context of delays, is analogous to deceleration. Deceleration is the exact opposite of acceleration. Deceleration is the deliberate slowing down of work on the project and is generally presented as mitigating the owner’s damages.
What is the difference between concurrent delay and pacing delay?
The distinction between concurrent delay and pacing delay has been discussed in the following manner.
“Pacing occurs when one of the independent delays is the result of a conscious, voluntary and contemporaneous decision to pace progress against the other delay. The quality that distinguishes pacing from concurrent delay is the fact that pacing is a conscious choice by the performing party to proceed at a slower rate of work with the knowledge of the other contemporaneous delay, while concurrent delays occur independently of each other without a conscious decision to slow the work”
Thus, in the example above, the contractor’s pacing delay is not independent of the owner’s delay because it is the result of a conscious and contemporaneous decision by
the contractor to slow down its work as a result of the owner’s delay.
SCL DELAY PROTOCOL explained pacing delay at section 15. Mitigation of delay and mitigation of loss, part 15.2
"A Contractor may consider pacing activities that are not on the critical path (i.e.
slowing down non-critical activities so that they proceed at the same relative pace as the delayed activities on the critical path). The Protocol recommends that if the Contractor intends to pace non-critical activities, then it should notify the Employer and the CA of its intention in this regard, along with its reasons for doing so."
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