The construction bidding process is in deep trouble. Just open your local newspaper or read ENR. Projects are coming in far over budget and owners can’t attract enough bidders to assure competitive prices. Worse, owners are incurring major cost overruns after starting projects. The root cause of these problems is that owners, architects and engineers are not using reliable means to obtain the correct project numbers in the first place. It appears that management edicts or wishful thinking are driving budgets instead of estimating professionals.
Owners, such as the California Dept. of Transportation, that hope for multiple bids or want to award a contract for the best price without using professional estimators are deluding themselves. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge re-bidding, whether Caltrans admits it or not, is due to additional costs that the owner programmed into the project. But, of course, it’s not Caltrans’ fault that bids came in over the budget, it’s the contractor’s fault. Let’s stop this charade and save competitive bidding by restoring responsible estimating.