00388761

Component

In highway construction, the quality of a project is introduced by the engineers who design it and the contractors who construct it. Bidding and contract award merely serve as check-points where the requirements that are necessary to assure desired quality can be reviewed and the responsibilities of the parties for meeting quality standards are reduced to written contractual form. The formal documents comprising a construction contract establish enforceable standards of quality for that project. This contract, plus the practices involved in administering it and the law relating to contract enforcement, are the final authoritive statements of the parties responsibilities. They comprise the legal and administrative framework within which the design and construction processes and the project's quality assurance system are carried out. Accordingly, a review of contracting procedures, specifically the bidding and contract award phases, can contribute to an evaluation of the strength and weakness of particular quality assurance systems in construction programs. This paper describes current procedures and practices regarding bidding and award of highway construction contracts as they relate to responsibility for construction quality, and problems of quality assurance. It includes suggestions as to how bidding and contract award practices may be made more effective as checkpoints in assuring high quality highway construction. (Author)

Presentation to the Conference on Quality Assurance of Highways and Bridges, Workshop No. 1: Design, August 30-31, 1983.

p. 1-33

1984-7

Public Construction Contracts Law Newsletter

Figures (34) ; Tables (2)

Awards; Bids; Contractors; Quality assurance; Quality control; Road construction

Responsibilities

Administration and Management; Construction; Design; Highways; Law; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control

TRIS, TRB

Oct 30 1989 12:00AM