Bidding for Construction Contracts

Bidding is used extensively in the construction industry as a mechanism for allocating construction contracts to contractors. It establishes the market price and the identity of the constructor. Construction bidding is about contractors competing for and winning contracts. It is about pricing, cost efficiency and profitability. It is about risk assessment. It is about making strategic decisions; deciding within which markets to compete, which contracts to bid for and the bid levels necessary to secure construction contracts profitably. Indeed the very survival and prosperity of a large number of contractors is dependent on their respective bidding performances.

Rather than viewing construction bidding from a purely practical perspective, showing simply how to price a bid and prepare a tender, this text looks more deeply into competition theory and strategy and examines how construction bidding relates to disciplines such as economics, management and operations research. It shows how to measure cost estimate accuracy and success and competitiveness in bidding, and not merely how to understand these concepts. It not only points out the limitations of bid strategy modeling and the search for optimal solutions but also presents alternative approaches, looking at them from both client and contractor perspectives.

This text is intended for final year undergraduate students and postgraduate students as a supplement to other more practical texts on the subject. It should be useful to construction managers and directors, to contracts managers and estimators, and to clients and their representatives such as architects, engineers and quantity surveyors.