Construction bidding is the process of submitting a proposal to undertake, or manage the undertaking of a construction project. The process starts with a cost estimate from blueprints and material take offs. The tender is treated as an offer to do the work for a certain amount of money, or a certain amount of profit. The tender, which is submitted by the competing firms, is generally based on a bill of quantities, a bill of approximate quantities or other specifications which enable the tenders to attain higher levels of accuracy, the statement of work. For instance, a bill of quantities is a list of all the materials of a project which have sufficient detail to obtain a realistic cost, or rate per described item of work/material. The tenders should not only show the unit cost per material/work, but should also if possible, break it down to labour, plant and material costs. In this way the individual who is selecting the tender will be quite confident that the tender is feasible. Bids are not only chosen on cost alone. Sometimes contractors submit lower tenders to win the contract and win the work. Either the costs that the contractor incurs are greater than the price he is charging the client, and thus is likely to goinsolvent, or he will claim for "loss and/or expense" due to discrepancies in the contract documents. The lowest tender is not always a feasible tender. The lowest tender is the most likely to increase the contract sum the most throughout the course of the project.
Bid solicitation
Bid solicitation is the process of making published construction data readily available to interested parties, including construction managers, contractors, and the public. There are several services, including government entities and private plan rooms, that allow project owners to release project details to solicit and obtain contractor bids. These services act as a gateway for project owners to release project information to a large group of contractors, general contractors or subcontractors in an attempt to solicit bids. Many of these services are subscription based or charge a flat rate for project data.
Contractual formation
Depending upon the language in the bid proposal, a subcontracting construction company could make its bid final, and, if accepted, a legally enforceable contract is created. In these circumstances, upon determination by the general contractor that a bid is the lowest offer, it can accept the bid and, upon acceptance, a subcontractor cannot renege or revoke its offer. The language of the bid or offer can impact the court's determination of whether the subcontractor intended for further negotiations to take place, or whether the bid was intended to be an option or unilateral agreement to enter into a contract upon acceptance of the offer.
Types of project delivery ( Procurement methods)
All construction procurement methods can be divided into two categories.
Traditional procurement roots
Alternative procurement roots
Traditional procurement roots
There are three types of Alternative procurement roots in construction industry.
Lump-sum contracts
Re- measurable contracts
Cost reimbursement
The traditional procurement method is the most common construction delivery method. This process begins with an owner selecting an architect to prepare construction documents. These are prepared using drafting standards such as the Institution of Civil Engineers ICE Conditions of Contract, or the NEC Engineering and Construction Contract. In most cases, the architect will release these construction documents publicly, or to a select group of general contractors, who will then place a bid on the project which reflects what they believe cost of construction will total. This bid is inclusive of a multitude of subcontractor bids for each specific trade. The general contractor’s fee is generally built into the bid cost. Most government contracts are bid competitively using this method.
Alternative procurement roots
The most popular alternative procurement roots in construction industry are,
Design & build
Management Contracting
Methods of tendering (Bidding)
We can identify six types of tendering methods in construction industry.
In this method, the client is advertising and inviting the tenders. Any contractor who wishes to quote can submit their offers based on the invitation.
Single-stage selective tendering
Client is selecting few contractors and inviting them to quote. Contractors are mostly selected based on previous experience or pre-submitted qualifications.
Two-stage selective tendering
Also called as negotiated tendering. in first stage client is asking pre-selected contractors to submit their pricing parameters, and after that the client will request them to create drawings based on these price levels
Selective tendering for design and builds
Client is Selecting one or few contractors and asking them to submit design and commercial proposal together
Negotiation
Mostly used for the specialized works such as elevators. Client is regularly working with these type of contractors and they have preferable contractors for these kind of work. Here Contractor is submitting their costs and after that client is negotiating the prices before awarding.
Joint ventures
JV's are mostly used for complex and large projects.
Digital procurement
The digital procurement method is rapidly emerging. There are various web sites and applications that provide electronic bidding, tender calls, scope work, design bids and related services.
