I was one of those consultants on the GC side. It turned into a change order job which immediately means that consultants and lawyers are going to be involved. It’s a symptom of the current construction industry. There is no risk sharing model between owners and GCs. There’s no money in pre-bid inspections. Contractors are expected to bid on drawings and reports that allow you to formulate a bid. When the site conditions deviate from you’re expected drawings, that result in additional costs. It turns into a blame game between the owner and the GC. Owners say ‘you messed up the construction. Your means and methods were flawed’. While the GC says ‘no. There was a differing site condition from what was reasonably expected by the drawings.’

If the two parties can’t agree to share the cost. It goes to claim. Which means lawyers and consultants are hired by each side to prove each other wrong.

I was hired on the Geotechnical side proving the the Geotechnical Baseline report was fundamentally different from the site conditions and that no reasonable bidder could have anticipated the conditions.

Ultimately successful. But a nightmare for the project. What ends up happening is everyone loses money except the consultant and lawyers.