Page 422 - Trenchless Technology Piping Installation and Inspection

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technology construction. The design engineers can make educated
guesses and sensible estimates as to the range of those conditions,
and can account for potential variations in the design of the project.
The challenge is for the project owner to secure the services of a
contractor to construct the project for a fair (to both parties) price.
The single greatest challenge for the owner is how to deal, contrac-
tually and financially, with the potential variability of the ground
and groundwater conditions encountered during the trenchless
work.
Some owners may try to contractually transfer and shift all the
risk of the subsurface conditions to the contractor through “one-
sided” contract language and a “you bid it, you build it!” mentality.
However, this will persuade bidders to carry greater contingencies in
their bids, which increase the cost of the project, and will not neces-
sarily protect the owner from subsequent claims due to unforeseen
subsurface conditions. Depending on the competitiveness of the mar-
ketplace, bidders may also choose to interpret the available informa-
tion in the most optimistic manner possible, in an effort to present the
most competitive bid they can. In both instances, there is a high likeli-
hood that the contractor will win subsequent claims for additional
compensation, because they may be able to prove that conditions
encountered were materially more costly to bore, drill, excavate, sup-
port, stabilize, or otherwise control, than what they had assumed in
their bid. There is an abundance of case law supporting the premise
that the “owner owns the ground,” and that the owner will ultimately
pay the price of constructing his or her desired pipeline at the site
along his preferred alignment.
Due to high possibility of changing ground conditions on which
the bid was based, the presentation of the basis for design in the con-
tract document allows the parties to understand the rationale behind
the anticipated subsurface conditions. Baseline reports translate the
facts and interpretations about subsurface conditions to be encoun-
tered into a set of relatively simple statements. The baseline state-
ments may be preceded with a discussion of the potential variability
and uncertainty of certain conditions; however, the baseline state-
ments should be stated explicitly and in straight-forward, clear terms.
The use of adverbs and undefined adjectives should be avoided. The
baseline statements should be comprised of quantifiable terms that
can be measured in the field during construction. By establishing
clear baselines as part of the contract documents, the parties are more
likely to agree on the conditions indicated in the contract, without
time-consuming and costly arguments.
Baseline statements should be considered as contractual base-
lines, not necessarily geotechnical facts. Preparation of baselines may
involve the interpolation between, and extrapolation beyond, the
conditions depicted or inferred by the subsurface information.