Engineer, Construct & Operate Law | ECO, DBO & O&M Disputes

Engineer, Construct & Operate Law | ECO, DBO & O&M Construction Law

Engineer, Construct and Operate style contracts place long-term operational risk on the contractor well beyond practical completion. In Australia these structures are common across water treatment, energy and industrial plants, and they combine the hardest parts of construction law with decades of performance, availability and handback obligations that demand genuine technical understanding.

Types of ECO, DBO & O&M Projects

Engineer, Construct and Operate (ECO) contracts, Design Build Operate (DBO) and Design Build Operate Maintain (DBOM) structures, EPC plus O&M arrangements, BOOT and concession-style delivery, and long-term operations and maintenance agreements attached to water treatment plants, desalination facilities, power stations, waste-to-energy plants and industrial processing facilities.

ECO, DBO & O&M Disputes We Handle

Performance guarantee and availability KPI failures during the operating term, operator payment deductions and abatement regime disputes, handback condition and residual life claims at the end of the operating term, lifecycle and latent defect liability, interface risk between the construction and operations phases, and disputes over who bears the cost of rectifying design defects discovered years into operation.

Our ECO, DBO & O&M Dispute Experience

Advice to contractors and operators on availability deduction regimes under long-term DBO contracts for water and wastewater treatment facilities. Claims exceeding $10M arising from performance shortfalls at industrial processing plants, including disputes over whether failures were construction defects or operating errors. Strategic advice on handback condition assessments and residual asset life obligations, and claims at the construction and operations interface on power and desalination projects.

ECO, DBO & O&M Technical Expertise

Process and mechanical plant performance testing, water treatment and desalination process systems, power generation and balance of plant, SCADA and control systems, asset condition assessment and residual life analysis, maintainability and lifecycle costing, and the interface between construction commissioning and steady-state operations.

Contact an Engineer, Construct and Operate Lawyer

Call 1300 710 864. We advise contractors, operators, owners and financiers on ECO, DBO, DBOM and long-term O&M disputes across Australia.