Project Delivery, Contracts & Documents

• Design-bid-build: the owner holds separate contracts with the designer and the low-bid contractor. Design-build: one contract for both, faster and with a single point of responsibility. CM at risk: a construction manager joins during design and guarantees a maximum price.
• Lump sum: the contractor carries quantity risk. Unit price: the owner pays measured quantities at bid rates, so the owner carries it. Cost-plus with a guaranteed maximum price shares it.
• Documents: drawings show where and how much; specifications say what quality and how. Submittals, RFIs and change orders move information and money once work starts.

Worked: an overrun on excavation

Excavation was bid at $14.00 per cubic yard on an estimated 12,000 yd³ — $168,000. Measured quantities reach 13,500 yd³. Under the unit-price contract the owner pays 13,500 × 14.00 = $189,000. Had the same work been bid lump sum, the contractor would have absorbed the extra $21,000.