Construction Consulting · UAE & GCC
Senior commercial leadership for infrastructure projects.
From tender to final account.
Embedded commercial direction for infrastructure contractors and consultants in the UAE, GCC and UK. Price the risk before you sign, hold the commercial line while you build, and protect entitlement when things move against you. Founder-led, evidence-driven, working alongside your project, legal and programme teams.
When clients call us
Three moments where senior commercial input pays for itself many times over.
You are pricing a complex tender
A senior second pair of eyes on the numbers, the risk pricing and the contract form before submission. Catch what you cannot deliver, qualify what you do not own, and submit a commercially defensible bid.
Start a conversation →A commercial concern is brewing
A variation drifting. A programme slipping. A notice deadline that is about to expire. Get a senior commercial lead onto it now, before the issue crystallises and the recovery position closes.
Start a conversation →A dispute is going formal
DAAB submission, adjudication or arbitration. We bring the commercial and quantum case alongside your legal team, so the argument that wins on the contract is the one the tribunal actually hears.
Start a conversation →Services
Senior-level support across the project lifecycle.
Focused exclusively on infrastructure (rail, water, flood defence and utilities) across the UAE, GCC and UK. Delivered on a flexible day-rate, fixed-fee, or retained basis.
Strategy & Cost Certainty
- ◆ Independent challenge to pricing assumptions before tender submission
- ◆ Contract review and risk pricing (FIDIC Red / Silver / Emerald, NEC3/4, bespoke)
- ◆ Bill of Quantities preparation and Value Engineering
- ◆ Commercial governance setup aligned to contract mechanisms
Recovery & Resolution
- ◆ Delay analysis and Extension of Time claims, built on the programme
- ◆ Variation valuation, final account preparation and quantum
- ◆ Claims preparation and defence; settlement negotiation on either side
- ◆ DAAB submissions, adjudication, and DIAC / DIFC arbitration support
FIDIC, NEC & Contract Training
- ◆ FIDIC 2017 deep dive (Red, Yellow, Silver, Emerald): 1, 2 or 3 days
- ◆ NEC4 in practice: Early Warnings, compensation events, programme
- ◆ Notice Writing Workshop, half-day, every attendee drafts a real notice
- ◆ Quantum, EoT, DIAC 2022 Rules, Particular Conditions and more
What we don’t do: we don’t replace your legal team. We work alongside them, leading the commercial argument on the contract and the quantum.
Sectors
Illustrative scenarios
Three scenarios. Illustrative, grounded in real practice.
Worked scenarios that show how the commercial mechanics play out on infrastructure projects under FIDIC and NEC — from notice strategy to final account. Figures and details are illustrative and composite, not drawn from a single identifiable project.
A Sub-Clause 20.2.1 Notice issued on hour 47 of a 48-hour window.
Recovering roughly 85% of a low seven-figure claim that sat 48 hours from time-bar.
The clause 50.3 retention threat, reversed.
Reversing a clause 50.3 retention threat and recovering a low seven-figure CE settlement after a four-week programme reset.
Sixty-eight open items at PC. Closed in ninety days.
Closing 68 open items and recovering 88% of final account value, against a 65-70% benchmark without structured close-out.
Contract-form fluency
FIDIC, NEC, ICC, JCT and bespoke. Operator-level depth across every major form.
FIDIC Red, Yellow, Silver and Emerald (1999, 2017 and 2019 editions). NEC3 and NEC4 across Options A, C and E. ICC. JCT. Bespoke main-contract and subcontract forms. Disciplined notice administration, programme-tied claims, target-cost commercial governance and dispute-mechanism strategy: the procedural rhythms that decide commercial outcomes on every major contract form used across the UAE, GCC and UK.
Why Hardcastle
Four things that genuinely separate the work.
The UAE has good commercial consultants. Here is what is different about engaging Hardcastle Advisory Group specifically.
NEC and FIDIC fluency, side by side
Most commercial advisors in this market know FIDIC well and NEC barely at all. The work here brings deep NEC alliance discipline (target-cost, early-warning, programme-tied claims) into FIDIC-dominated projects where those habits make the contract work harder for the contractor.
Operator, not adviser
Twelve years leading the commercial function from the inside, on infrastructure programmes from £15m to over £500m. Not a consultant who learned contracts on a training course; a commercial lead who ran them under pressure.
GCC primary, UK on call
Based in Dubai for UAE and GCC engagements, with UK operations via Quest Commercial Ltd. Useful for international joint ventures, contractors moving between markets, and disputes that touch both jurisdictions.
Founder-led, every time
You deal directly with a senior commercial professional on every engagement. Specialist associates (planners, quantum experts) come in only where the work needs them.
Free tool
Notice of Claim health check.
10 questions, around three minutes. Scored red, amber or green against FIDIC Sub-Clause 20.1 and NEC compensation event practice. Honest answers give an honest result.
Quarterly Risk Brief
Gulf Infrastructure Commercial Risk Brief.
A four-page brief on commercial risk and dispute trends across UAE, GCC and UK infrastructure. One headline observation, two illustrative case summaries, one institutional update, one forward-look. Quarterly, free, and the foundation for the Annual Gulf Infrastructure Commercial Risk Report.
Capability statement
A summary of services, sectors, track record and engagement models.
Founder-led
Led by Craig Hardcastle.
- Experience
- Twelve years
- Contracts
- FIDIC, NEC3/4, ICC, JCT, Bespoke
- Sectors
- Rail, Water, Flood Defence, Utilities
- Disputes
- DAAB, Adjudication, Arbitration support
- Based
- Dubai & UK
Education
- LLM, Construction LawUniversity of Strathclyde · 2025–present
- MSc, Construction Cost ManagementUniversity of Reading · 2015–2017
- BA (Hons), Accounting and FinanceUniversity of Sheffield · 2008–2012
Craig is a senior commercial professional with twelve years on major infrastructure. Rail systems exceeding £500m. A £300m strategic water programme under an NEC3 alliance. A portfolio of flood defence and flood alleviation schemes. Founded Hardcastle Advisory Group in Dubai in 2025 to bring that depth into the Gulf market.
That background runs across NEC3/4, ICC, JCT, FIDIC and bespoke forms. The result is a practical, evidence-led view of what wins a claim and what falls apart on scrutiny, drawn from running the commercial function from the inside rather than advising on it from the outside.
Hardcastle Advisory Group works alongside legal teams on DAABs, adjudications and arbitrations, and is retained by contractors and consultants for contract strategy, commercial governance, and entitlement recovery. Based in Meydan Free Zone, Dubai, with UK operations via Quest Commercial Ltd.
Insights
Perspectives on contracts, claims and commercial risk.
Final account close-out: three patterns that recover materially more
Final account is where contractors quietly lose the value they built up over delivery. Three patterns that consistently recover more: start before practical completion, close items in real time, and present the account as a structured commercial position.
Read article →Programme is the contract: why your NEC Accepted Programme decides every claim
Under NEC, the Accepted Programme is a contract document, not a planning artefact. The absence of a current one quietly destroys most contractors’ ability to recover on compensation events, and exposes a quarter of monthly PWDD to retention under clause 50.3.
Read article →FIDIC Sub-Clause 20.1: the notice that decides every claim
Sub-Clause 20.1 of the FIDIC 2017 forms is the single most consequential clause for contractors. Miss the 28-day window and the entitlement is gone. A field guide to what the clause requires, where contractors fail, and what wins a notice.
Read article →Monthly insights
Short notes, sent on the first of each month.
One email a month. Contract mechanics, dispute trends, and commercial-risk observations from across the work. Quarterly briefs included. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
How we work
Common questions, answered straight.
How does the first call work? +
How do you scope and price engagements? +
Do you work alongside our lawyers, or replace them? +
How quickly can you mobilise? +
Do you act for contractors only, or both sides? +
Which contract forms are you experienced in? +
Is everything confidential? +
Get in touch
Let’s talk about your project.
Whether you’re pricing a tender, reviewing contract risk, or facing a live dispute, reach out for a confidential, no-obligation conversation.
Meydan Grandstand, 6th Floor, Meydan Road, Nad Al Sheba, Dubai, U.A.E.