Recent Practices and Lessons Learned

This chapter captures recent practices and lessons learned since the first book on this topic in 1997. A 2021 conference workshop was held that focused on dispute review boards and their effectiveness. The discussion shifted to a focus on the need to increase the quality of geotechnical baseline reports (GBRs) that with better written GBRs, the dispute review board process would work more smoothly. To be risk averse, some GBRs are prepared with the “baseline” as the full range of potential values, extending from the low extreme to the high extreme, with no average or typical values indicated. Bidders were given the “option” to avoid the bid penalty by agreeing to have the GBR and differing site conditions clause removed from the contract, resulting in significant risk transfer to the contractor relative to subsurface conditions. Construction case law in the United States supports the interpretation that planned contract payment quantities in the bid schedule are valid “indications” of physical conditions to be anticipated during construction.