Towers

Background

You are the Project Manager for Apex Construction, a General Contractor (GC) that has just been awarded a $45 million contract for a 12-story mixed-use development called “Riverwalk Towers.” You are currently in the buyout phase, finalizing subcontracts.

The Situation: For the Structural Steel package, the estimating team received three subcontractor bids, and, as estimators do, they used the smaller of the three numbers at the time of the bid to the owner.

1. Vendor A: $5,200,000
2. Vendor B: $4,950,000
3. Mid-State Steel (Vendor C): $1,250,000

The Issue

Mid-State Steel is a reliable, family-owned subcontractor youve worked with before. Their bid is nearly $3.7 million lower than the nearest competitor. Upon a quick internal review of their line items, your Estimator realizes Mid-State likely forgot to include the cost of the raw steel materials and only quoted the labor and fabrication.

If you hold them to this price, your project profit increases by nearly 8%, making you a hero to your executives. However, a $3.7 million loss would likely bankrupt Mid-State Steel halfway through the project.

Assignment

Write a 3-page, double spaced paper, with 12pt font responding to the items below. CITE YOUR SOURCES.

Legal & Contractual Obligation: Does a “meeting of the minds” exist? Research the legal implications of enforcing a contract when the GC knows (or should have known) a clerical error was made.

Operational Risk Assessment: What happens to the project schedule and quality if the subcontractor goes belly-up during the erection of the 4th floor?

Professional Ethics: How does “bid shopping” or exploiting a mistake impact your reputation in the local subcontracting market? Is there a “middle ground” solution (e.g., allowing a corrected bid or a re-scope)?

AI Policy: Assisted Drafting & Research

In the construction industry, AI is increasingly used to summarize documents and flag risks. For this assignment, you may use Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude) as a research and drafting assistant, but not as a replacement for your own analysis. Your assignment will be checked for the use of AI.

• What is allowed: Using AI to brainstorm “middle ground” solutions, summarize legal definitions (like “scriveners error”), or check your paper’s grammar and flow.
• What is prohibited: Submitting a paper that is primarily AI-generated. The “Operational Risk Assessment” and “Professional Ethics” sections must reflect your personal judgment as a future Project Manager.
• Disclosure Required: If you use AI for more than basic proofreading, you must include a brief “AI Disclosure Statement” at the end of your paper (e.g., “I used ChatGPT to help structure my outline and research the legal definition of meeting of the minds.”).
• Accountability: You are 100% responsible for the accuracy of your paper. If the AI “hallucinates” a legal case or a construction cost that doesn’t exist, you will be graded accordingly.