91ÊÓƵ

In its simplest form, the distribution process of addenda for construction bid packages can be as easy as a fax or an e-mailed PDF document from an architect or engineer.

On the other end of the spectrum, the distribution of addenda documents becomes a complicated process of communication and document transfer between architects, engineers, reprographic companies, project owner, and plan centers.

Addenda documents commonly become lost in the dog-eat-dog world of the modern, economy-influenced bidding process caught within the grey area of on-line and physical document control – and it’s my job to find them and post the information for the 91ÊÓƵ.

There are two sources of improper distribution of addenda from issuer to plan holder. The first is a lack of communication between issuer and reprographic company. If a reprographic company is distributing a bid package, the company does not automatically distribute addenda that are sure to be issued after the bid package is released.

Did you know that in most cases the issuer must request that its addenda be distributed to the plan holders? This is where a communication break down occurs: reprographic companies do not inform the issuers that they must request addenda to be sent to plan holders. Issuers commonly assume that their addenda is being distributed, when in fact, it is sitting in the worst place it could be, with an entity who has no use for the information it contains – the reprographic company.

The second source is that issuers, especially of public projects, are making the transition from distributing physical bid documents to posting them online.

As more issuers strive to adapt to the digital age, more confusion is coming about. Many Web sites have online plan-holder registration and distribute addenda documents to those who have registered, or at least notifications of addenda documents, via email.

But the smaller purchasing departments that once faxed addenda documents are now posting them online, and the problem is that nobody knows they are posting them. They do not send out any notification. I have been tracking each Web site that does not notify the plan holder of newly issued addenda, and my list is continually growing. At the 91ÊÓƵ, we check these websites frequently, but are all plan holders aware of this? According to the bid results that we report, many bids are deemed “non-responsive” and are rejected only because the bidder did not acknowledge the issued addenda on its bid form.

There are many ways to send or receive an addenda document: an email from an engineer, a link from a purchasing department or a hard copy from a reprographic company – to name a few. There have become so many ways and places to release and publicize addenda, there is growing room for error.

The collaborative efforts of project owners, architects, engineers and reprographic companies that are soliciting bids are unsure of who is handling the responsibility of the distribution of addenda to plan holders. It would be beneficial to the entire bidding community to clarify the issue, and to streamline and simplify the distribution of addenda into a universal format.