If the government wrongfully refuses to grant a time extension for an excusable delay, any claim for delay damages by the government will be unjustified. More important, if the government either denies a legitimate time request during the project or fails to act in a timely manner upon such a request, it will be deemed to have "constructively" ordered the contractor to accelerate the schedule and thus is responsible for any . reasonable costs the contractor incurs attempting to complete the project within the original contract time period. In a perfect world, a contractor that encounters a delay outside of its control promptly alerts the government to the delay-causing event, and once the extent of the delay can be quantified, the government responds to a formal request for time by either granting all or a portion of the request or denying it altogether. This is perfect because both the government and contractor are placed in a position where they can make intelligent decisions on going forward. The government, presented with a timely request, can consider both the entitlement and quantum of the time request and whether it desires the contractor to accelerate to make up for lost time.
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