CCC Job #3374 StarPlus Energy Kokomo Battery Plant

Closeout Documentation Requirements

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:

There has been some confusion about what is required for closeout documentation requirements for subcontractors and suppliers.
This has resulted in delays to getting STLA's acceptance of equipment and in processing of final payments to subcontractors and suppliers.
There were several documents included in the contract documents that had differing and sometimes conflicting requirements for closeout, including the Request for Proposal, the contract with the owner, the technical specifications and the drawings.
Some stated requirements were impractical to fulfill, but had to be accounted for at bid time anyway, in case they were enforced.
An example of this is the requirement within the division 1 specifications that called for ten (10) printed copies of all Operations and Maintenance Manuals.
This would have resulted in thousands of printed and bound manuals which was likely never actually wanted by STLA.

ROOT CAUSE:

Contract language that was outdated and unclear and conflicting which could have been cleaned up prior to bidding saving money in the beginning and time at the end.

COURSE OF ACTION:

Meetings with STLA and with the Subcontractors were held in an effort to clarify and streamline the requirements, but even then, STLA frequently changed the agreed to requirements, but still within the contract language, causing some continued confusion and delay during contract closeout.

LESSON FOR FUTURE PROJECTS:

If possible, the proposed contract documents should be carefully reviewed prior to bidding.
Meetings with the owner should be held to try to eliminate impractical requirements, clarify poorly defined requirements (Training is one such area), and clean up conflicting requirements.
If not done until after bidding, then such meetings should still be held early in the project, and any agreed to changes should be codified in a Change Order to the contract(s).