The Hilton Riyadh Hotel & Residences in Saudi Arabia comprises two towers — a 20-storey tower with 480 hotel rooms and a 14-storey tower with 350 hotel apartments (830 keys in total) — together with restaurants, outdoor lounges, eight meeting rooms, two boardrooms, a business centre, separate male and female ballrooms and a junior ballroom, across some 1,194,000 sqm of floor area. The development ran to approximately four years and a value of around SAR 1.2 billion, delivered by a major Tier 1 contractor.
MPG was appointed in a professional consultancy capacity to provide dispute resolution and claims services under a FIDIC form of contract. Our scope included full cost planning, life-cycle costing, budgeting, pre- and post-contract quantity surveying and contract administration, claims and variation management, cost reporting to the main contractor board, and negotiations with the FIDIC Engineer on cost and delay.
The project was demanding: package procurement was affected by sub-contractor failures and shortages of labour and materials, while sporadic design development and slow approvals drove critical delays and disruption. Multiple claims were issued for delay, prolongation and loss and expense — and settled successfully without third-party involvement.
Resolving claims under FIDIC without escalation depends on rigorous records, a credible quantum case, and constructive engagement with the Engineer — the approach that delivered settlement here.
