| WRITING STYLE AND ORGANIZATION |
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The Project Resource Manual−CSI Manual of Practice (PRM) offers sage advice when it comes to writing style and organization. One should use a clear, concise, and consistent style, and eliminate unnecessary words. Bridging documents are prepared by a large group of professionals with varying styles. It is beneficial to prepare and distribute templates with guidance on writing style before embarking on document preparation. Bridging documents should be organized using the owner’s standard table of contents. If the owner does not have a standard table of contents, MasterFormat and UniFormat are widely used effective tools for organizing the bridging document information. |
Transparency
The bridging documents should disclose all relevant information to teams bidding on the project. Design-build transfers a lot of the risk from the owner to the D-B team, but it does not eliminate claims. Providing all relevant information reduces claims and results in better bids.
Quality control in the D-B project
Quality control (QC) is the sole responsibility of the design-build team. The owner may perform quality assurance (QA) testing or hire an independent QA consultant for acceptance. The bridging documents identify the overall quality planning, controlling, reporting, and auditing requirements. The D-B team is required to prepare a quality plan consistent with these requirements, often prior to selection.
The quality plan must include both construction and design QC components aligned with the owner’s standard requirements. The owner should trust the design-build team’s quality control system, but needs to be smart by requiring independent verification and auditing.
Along with project D-B quality requirements, bridging documents should identify applicable quality requirements of funding agencies, such as:
- Federal Transit Administration (FTA) IT-90-5001-02.1, Quality Assurance and Quality Control Guidelines;
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) 23 CFR 637, Quality Assurance; or
- Northeast Transportation Training and Certification Program (NETTCP).
Risk allocation
As the design is only partially complete at the time of bid and must be finished by the design-builder, the owner’s risk related to the design is low. However, the design-builder is in a high risk position for final design, construction product, quality, and schedule. Its bid is based on the loosely defined collection of bridging documents.
The design-builder produces the final design product, and assumes the risk for the final project schedule and the construction activity. Ideally, the project allocates risk to the party best able to manage, price, and insure the risk. Bridging documents are used to allocate risk between the owner and design builder.
Market conditions
Conditions in the construction market will affect the response to the request for proposals (RFP). It is important for owners to be able to gage the market conditions and what the construction market will accept. Design-build-operate-maintain, design-build-maintain, and public-private partnerships (P3s) are long-term contracts and have various payment mechanisms. It is particularly important to feel out the market conditions on long-term projects.
For example, the Town of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, requested bids for wind turbine developers. The developers would receive revenue from power purchased by the town, depreciation tax credits, and renewable energy credits (REC) over the 20-year contract term. REC prices vary and can be sold forward in the market, but at a discount. Some bidders sought an adjustment if the renewable energy credit market fell substantially. The town felt that the risk of a drop in renewable energy credits was something they would not accept, so it disallowed the contract adjustment. Three compliant bids were received, but some potential bidders chose not to partake.
Terms of contract
Since the project agreement is the sole document defining contractual requirements, it is important to have it consistent with the project and owner needs. It is advised to provide a copy or draft of the proposed project agreement with the RFP. This document ultimately defines the project and allocates risk.
