Many clients, consultants and commentators have come to the conclusion that innovations which seek to address this state of affairs must do more than merely reallocate risk within the existing adversarial structure. A more radical change as to the nature of the relationship between client and contractor must take place. To this effect, relationship contracting has been developed as a new approach to the delivery of construction projects.

This paper specifically discusses project alliancing as one emanation of relationship contracting. It will identify project alliancing as a distinct approach to project delivery, and provide some case studies of public sector projects that have been undertaken as alliances. Project alliancing turns upon the implementation of a performance-based contract structure, the alignment of the commercial interests of client and contractor, and a genuine “no blame” culture between the parties. It has the potential to bring clear benefits to the execution of public sector projects. However, as with all innovations, there are aspects of project alliancing which need to be understood in order for measured judgements to be made as to its implementation.