The Legal Framework of an Infrastructure Project
An infrastructure project — a road, a network, a terminal or an industrial complex — is legally a multi-party relationship at whose center stands the contract of work: under it the contractor undertakes to perform the work contemplated by the contract, and the customer must pay the contractor the agreed remuneration. Where the work involves the making of some product and the contractor makes it from materials purchased by itself, it transfers to the customer ownership of the product made.
For large projects the rules on remuneration are decisive: remuneration is deemed agreed even tacitly, where according to the circumstances the work is to be expected only against remuneration; where the amount is not agreed, where a tariff exists the tariff rate is deemed agreed, and where no tariffs exist — the ordinary remuneration. The preparation of a cost estimate is not separately compensated unless otherwise agreed.