Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Satsop 1978 - How to get a copy of the bid spec



One of my early jobs after arriving at Satsop in 1977 was to write the Piping and Support Specification, and then to serve as Lead Engineer for the bidding cycle of this $200m contract.


So, having written and resolved all comments on specification 3240-251 and the technical content of the bid document, the contract was advertised for bid - listing me as 'Lead Engineer.'


The only problem... I didn't have a copy of the bid document and spec. If I got a call with a bidder's question I was sunk!


Pleading with the Office Engineer had no effect - we still had limited copying capacity (despite SJ Groves claims otherwise). The bidders were first on the list to get copies and I had to wait.


'Thinking on my feet' I found the solution - I submitted the needed $30 fee to get on the bidders list (see attached). You know what - they found a copy for me!


In no way did the Office Engineer want my name to be listed, as required by procedure, in the planholder/bidders list. The head cheeses would be pissed if that happened - they and the job would look like bumbling .......'s and not the well oiled machine we all knew we had.

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