I just received a bid form for a project. It is in a major Midwestern city I will not name but it sounds a lot like Chicago. This bid form is for use on a project that is for a new building, not a highway or transportation project. All of the bidders on the project are prequalified and invited. The project is worth a bunch of money. At least you would think so because the main part of the bid form contains over 1,000 items that require pricing for the bid.
The bid form doesn’t stop with the pricing of the 1,000+ items. Not only do the bidders have to price each line item, they have to develop the quantities to be priced! And, to add a bit more complexity to the bid period, there are over 30 alternates identified by the owner for the contractor to price out with breakouts for cost, overhead, profit and contingencies. To add insult to injury the owner is also requesting voluntary alternates from each of the bidders.
There’s more but it is almost beyond belief! Breakouts are being requested for the general conditions and indirect costs, prices for self performed and subcontracted work scope along with requests for any clarifications or exceptions to the project. It will take two weeks to fill out the bid form information.
I wonder if the owner knows that the contractors will look at the bid requirements and fill in the blanks with less than meaningful information and pricing. It is apparent this is an owner that does not know how to develop a project that encourages the best pricing from contractors. It is apparent that the architect and engineer are not providing any meaningful input for a better bid form. Little does the owner know they are setting themselves up for the job from hell and it is their own fault!
Oh By The Way… In better economic times it is likely there would be little to no contractor interest in bidding this project. In these times there are seven major prime contractors pursuing this project. It is a sad state of affairs in construction when bidding projects has come to this.
