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“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” Well, that adage may hold true for some things, but that certainly isn’t the case for water infrastructure. A better one may be Murphy’s Law: “What can go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible time.”  This past winter was a classic example of fully functioning water infrastructure systems that function great half of the year and fail the other half. Out of sight and out of mind really plays a role here as well. 

Many times in construction the word “transparency” is tossed around very loosely.  At times a contractor can provide a brief scope of work with a lump sum price or just a lump sum price.  Or, a contractor will reference a set of prints in their lump sum proposal in which the problem is that sometimes the prints may not provide enough detail of what a contractor should or should not provide. For example, a print may say that the electrical contractor shall provide a 2” EMT Conduit from Panel A to Panel B.  The problem is that the print nor the contractor’s lump sum price spells out how that conduit is to be support, or routed.  This reflects a lack in transparency, which may lead to confusion during a review by the owner that could result in the owner being vulnerable to additional costs associated with the project.  Transparency is a tool that a detailed, localized unit price book, such as the Construction Task Catalog® (CTC), provides that allows the owner to remain protected from being a victim or being taken advantage of by discrepancies. When using any of Gordian’s JOC solutions the contractor is building a Price Proposal based on a CTC.  Building a proposal from Gordian’s CTC is like providing to an owner a contractors “take-off” sheet.