Bid – Anticipating Costs

Because the differing site conditions clause alleviates the need for contractors to insert speculative contingency costs in their bids, it reduces inflated bidding, and the government presumably saves money by getting lower bids. See Youngdale & Sons Constr. Co. v. United States, 27 Fed.Cl. 516, 527 (1993); North Slope, 14 Cl.Ct. at 257; Weeks Dredging & Contracting, Inc. v. United States, 13 Cl.Ct. 193, 219 (1987), aff’d, 861 F.2d 728 (Fed.Cir.1988) (Weeks ). The government may further reduce the contractor’s need to pay its bid by furnishing as much information about the site to the bidders as it can. Youngdale, 27 Fed.Cl. at 527. Iacobelli Const., Inc. v. Cty. of Monroe, 32 F.3d 19, 23–24 (2d Cir. 1994). Contractors are not bound to know that which only an expert could derive from the bidding materials. North Slope Technical Ltd. v. United States, 14 Cl. Ct. 242, 252 (1988).

Updated: July 25, 2018