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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I III CONSTRUCTION REVIEW A. General The comments and recommendations in this section are intended to assist in obtaining good quality construction at minimum cost. It is generally agreed that bids are most competitive when both the contract requirements and the site conditions are well defined. With this in mind, every effort should be made to give bidders all available information. At the same time it is considered advisable on the part of the owner to share the risk for possible conditions which cannot be foreseen by either party at the time of contract award. The provision for such conditions which appears on page 77 (Item 26.3) affords contractors only partial protection by comparison with most Federal Government construction contracts with which dam contractors are usually familiar. It is 'recommended that a standard "Changed Conditions" clause replace Item 26.3 and that Item 40 (page 44), which does not appear appli- cable to the Yamco1o damsite, be deleted. The recommended clause is Section 4 of Standard Form 23-A which is available from the Bureau of Reclamation. Standardized wording in the changed conditions clause is considered important for several reasons: ~ l. 2. Bidders are less likely to add a contingency for unknowns. Some contractors will not bid work such as a dam if the clause is not provided. Claims and litigation are reduced because the legal meaning of the clause has been established in Previous cases, To reduce the possibility for claims and to obtain Inore competitive 3. bids it is recommended that site inspections be as complete as possible. If final bid documents have not been issued, general layout drawings should be available at the site. It is helpful to have exploration logs and test results available and the corresponding holes and pits staked for approxi- mate location. As many as possible of the test pits should be reopened