I have seen several projects bidding recently where it seemed a greater importance was placed on the bid date rather than receiving quality bids. On one of these bids, the plans were only 60% complete and an addendum was issued on Friday for a Monday bid date that changed the scope for the contractor and changed pipe and fitting specifications. Another project didn’t issue any addendums because I’m assuming they didn’t want to extend the bid date.
Pushing projects to bid faster does not save the owner money, it costs money.
Even in the tight market right now, contractors have to account for the poorly designed plans whether they are putting in a contingency factor, an allowance or counting on change orders. To prevent change orders the engineer may do a CYA note such as “the contractor is responsible for the sizing and routing of the branch piping to the required equipment” when only the mains have been drawn on the plans. A contractor has to include money in the estimate for this note.
A contractor can lower their bid more on a project that has been completely designed compared to an incomplete design because they will have a better comfort level for the job. The overall cost of construction will also be higher on an incomplete design because of the additional change orders that will be required on a project that wasn’t complete prior to bidding.
If the project is going to be bid competitively, then the plans and specifications has to be at 100% prior to being sent out to the contractors to give the owner the most bang for their buck.
