Normalize Design, Excavation, Drainage and Restoration

Align the document basis

Confirm every proposer received the same photos, site plan, investigation, professional documents and requested outcome. Record assumptions where evidence is absent.

Separate design responsibility

State who confirms the system, geometry, loads, soils, drainage and professional requirements. Identify design and field-review exclusions clearly.

Normalize excavation and base

Compare quantities, removals, disposal, temporary conditions, base preparation, unsuitable-material allowances and change triggers.

Itemize wall and water scope

List system components, reinforcement, backfill, drainage materials, outlets, transitions, caps, guards/fences and interface details.

Price access and restoration

Compare staging, neighbour coordination, utility protection, equipment access, paving/landscape restoration and cleanup.

Define change and closeout

Ask how unknown conditions are documented and priced, then list required inspections, field records, as-built information, maintenance notes and warranty evidence.

Issue one pricing package

Give each proposer the same marked plan, photographs, available reports, requested outcome and quantity basis. Record every exception in writing. When quantities are proposer-measured, require a takeoff showing lengths, heights, returns and excavation assumptions so totals can be reconciled.

• Freeze the bid revision
• Show measured wall segments
• List bidder assumptions separately

Level risk and change rules

Separate unsuitable ground, hidden construction, groundwater, access limits and unrecorded services into explicit assumptions or allowances. Define the evidence that triggers a change, who reviews it, the unit or pricing method and the written authorization required before extra work begins.

• Do not bury allowances
• Name approval authority
• Track credits as well as additions

Compare closeout evidence

Build a final column for permits, inspections, professional field records, concealed-work photographs, product data, outlet locations, maintenance information, deficiencies and record drawings where applicable. Treat missing closeout deliverables as unresolved scope rather than assuming they arrive with completion.

• Assign each deliverable
• Tie records to drawing revisions
• Retain maintenance access information

Document the final bid-leveling decision

After clarifications, preserve one comparison sheet showing matching quantities, design responsibility, excavation and base scope, complete wall assembly, drainage, access, approvals, restoration, allowances, exclusions and closeout evidence. Copy explicit proposal commitments and mark silence as unresolved. Record taxes, alternates, unit rates and the written change process. The selection note should explain material differences without treating lowest price as equivalent scope, and the accepted proposal should incorporate every relied-on clarification so the construction contract does not revert to an earlier incomplete description.

• Attach the common pricing package
• Signpost every unresolved exclusion
• Carry clarifications into the accepted scope
• Keep allowances auditable
• Name required handover records