Contract time will be determined by the contract as bid or the work orders as provided. If a Contractor provides a baseline schedule proposing completion of the work prior to the end of contract time, do not reduce the contract time. Do not begin liquidated damages until contract time has expired, regardless of the contractor's planned completion date per the baseline schedule.

A Contractor has the right to finish early. If the Contractor plans to finish early per the baseline schedule, and the schedule appears to be reasonable, yet finishes later than they had planned, the Contractor can still claim delays and/or overhead costs even if contract time has not yet expired. Such a claim will require a Time Impact Analysis to determine the cause of the delays and which party (TxDOT or the Contractor) is responsible for the delay.