The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Procurement Contract

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Procurement Contract Name Institution of Affiliation Date The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Procurement Contract The Tacoma project is situated at Gig harbor and the Tacoma Washington. In July 16th 2002 a design-build contract was signed between The Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and the Tacoma Narrows Constructors (TNC), a joint venture of Bechtel Corporation and Kiewit. This contract included the construction of the bridge and the upgrade of the existing bridge and infrastructure. As Hagerman (2017) notes this type of contract was not very similar to the usual design-bid-build contracts. This is based on the fact that TNC subcontracted the design stage of the project to Parsons Corporation. The procurement process was of international standards as several contractors and subcontractors were invited for the contract from across different countries of the world such as Canada, China, and Japan among many others. Notably, the scope of the contract required that the WSDOT buys the services of TNC, while TNC takes care of all the other aspects including payment for materials, tools, equipment, machinery, insurance and the signing of all the regulatory requirements (TNC- WSDOT, 2002, P.21). The overall costs of the project were at $ 722 million saving $38 million from the estimated $760 million. Despite the success the project was faced with several challenges which led to the collapse of the bridge (Hagerman, 2017). The design-build contracts have several advantages and disadvantages as witnessed in an ideal case of such a contract. Firstly, the design-build contracts focus on performance and hence take a shorter time to complete because in such a case the time for bidding for the construction contract is reduced. This was evidential in the project in the case of the TNC where there was no bidding for the construction part of the project. It saved time and contributed greatly to the overall delivery of the project timely despite the weather challenges that they encountered in November 2007 and Januray 2008. However, the bridge was on schedule and it was officially opened for traffic in July 20th 2008. Secondly, once the contract has been signed it’s very easy to initiate other aspects of the project even without the completing the design phase. In the case of TNC contract they were able to start the fabrication of steel cutting edge for the main tower caissons 30 days after signing the contract (Viola, 2007 p.42). However, the open discussions between the designers and engineers were a great aspect for early start of the project. Thirdly, the build design contracts are effective in budget management. When discussing the budg...