Chris Binnington

Chris was born in England, and began his working career in the Merchant Navy serving an apprenticeship as a Marine Engineer. He was later promoted to Second Engineer Officer on supertankers. He resigned from the Merchant Navy in order to attend the University of Wales, where he attained a Bachelor of Science Degree with First Class Honours in Mechanical Engineering. In 1973 he immigrated to South Africa and in 1982 obtained a Masters Degree in Business Leadership from UNISA.

Chris has worked in a variety of contexts and locations, including Iscor Vanderbijlpark as Head of the Lubrication Department; Mhlume Sugar Mill in Swaziland as Assistant Chief Engineer; and Coastal Offshore Holdings in Cape Town as Project Engineer where he was involved in the construction of vessels; various marine salvage operations; the design and project responsibility for both single and conventional buoy moorings; and the preparation of tenders for a variety of projects.

Since 1983 Chris has been consulting in the field of contractual disputes arising out of engineering and construction contracts, acting on behalf of clients in promoting or defending their claims through negotiations, mediation or arbitration. He entered into partnership with Bill Copeland in 1985 and has continued to impress with his knowledge and ability to reconcile construction contract problems.

Chris is a registered Professional Engineer and from 1997 until 2010 has served as Chairman of the Association of Arbitrators of Southern Africa. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and, for four years, served as Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the Engineering Council of South Africa. He regularly contributes articles to construction journals and is an accomplished lecturer on commercial and contractual topics. He is a member of the Point Yacht Club and an avid fly fisherman. 

Adjudication expertise

Chris Binnington has, since 1996 when the New engineering Contract was introduced into South Africa by ESKOM, specialised in the process of adjudication both from the perspective of training others in the process and in practicing in the field. In conjunction with the BCA training Manager Adv Gigi Fenster, he has developed a one day training course on adjudication which has now been presented to over 400 people. This course is used as the basis for admission to the Association of Arbitrators (Southern Africa) panel of adjudicators.

He has also assisted a number of public and private organisations to set up and train their own panels of adjudicators. This includes: Windhoek City Council; Coega Development Corporation; Amplats.

He has authored a number of articles on the process of adjudication which articles have been published in Southern African construction journals.
He has practiced both as an adjudicator as well as a representative of one of the parties to an adjudication in the preparation of the submissions to adjudication. He is a member of the panels of adjudicators of Transnet, ESKOM, and The Association of Arbitrators (Southern Africa).

He has experience in the adjudication process under the standard forms of contract published by FIDIC, NEC, JBCC and the South African Institution of Civil Engineers.


Inter alia, he was the adjudicator appointed under an NEC contract for the deepening and widening of the Durban Harbour entrance (2 disputes); was Chairman of a 3 person adjudication Tribunal for the Port Elizabeth soccer stadium, part of the 2010 World Cup infrastructure; and has assisted in the preparation of submissions in more than 20 other adjudications either on behalf of the referring party or the responding party.

He was appointed as adjudicator during October 2011 in 4 matters including a Millenium Challenge Funded project in Lesotho and has been consulted in regard to a potential Millenium Challenge water treatment plant dispute in Tanzania.