Prebid Walk Gives Six Contractors Identical Opportunity To Miss Same Detail

SATIRE / FICTION

This is an original fictional story. The characters, organizations, events and dialogue are invented.

Six commercial roofing contractors completed the same prebid walk Monday, giving every bidder an equal opportunity to overlook the concealed condition that would later explain the difference between their prices.

The group photographed the visible roof areas, agreed that the building was large, and paused together at a detail nobody wanted to identify as the reason for pausing. One estimator photographed another estimator taking a photograph, preserving the possibility that the second person knew something.

A question about the existing assembly was referred to an addendum. Until that arrived, each bidder was encouraged to use the available information, which included the fact that an addendum was coming.

'We all saw the same thing,' one estimator said. 'That's why the numbers should be completely unrelated.' He added that his company would include everything clearly included, subject to clarification of what everyone had seen.

Back at their offices, the six firms assigned six meanings to the word 'existing.' One treated it as remaining. Another treated it as removed. A third carried an allowance for discovering which of those the owner intended after award.

The meeting attendance sheet circulated that afternoon as evidence that all bidders understood the site conditions. It contained six signatures and no space to record what any of them understood.

Estimators exchanged no pricing information but independently arrived at the same final question: whether the detail shown on the roof was the detail shown in the drawings. The response directed them to the forthcoming clarification, now described as complete.

The clarification arrived at 4:56 p.m., addressed to 'All,' with no attachment.