How do low bids hide site logistics problems in Garowe?

The bidder has priced the visible work and left out the movement around it: access roads, turning space, storage, spoil removal and the labour hours that shift material by hand. Ask the bidder to explain added access costs in its own method statement and bill.

What gets left out of a low logistics bid?

The omissions are the tasks a bidder treats as the contractor's problem rather than a priced item. Deliveries need a route to the plot, a gate wide enough for the delivery vehicle, a place to stand while unloading, and somewhere to put the load that is not in the way of the next trade. Spoil, packaging and surplus fill need a route out. A lump sum can absorb these only if someone measured them.

Curing water, cement bags and mixed concrete also need handling within working hours. Ask the supplier and the site engineer how curing, stockpiling and unloading are timed for the actual conditions on the plot, and whether the work can be sequenced so fresh material is placed before it stands. Ask two ready-mix or block suppliers for written delivery notes on vehicle size and unloading time, and ask the bidder to price those notes into the logistics schedule. If the bill shows lifting, carting or cleaning only as a single line, ask how many hours it assumes and where the figure came from.

How does blocked work access change the job?

The site slows down first in the yard, not on the drawings. When one contractor holds a narrow strip of land, the concrete truck blocks the steel delivery, the steel lays where the next foundation trench is marked, and the bricklayers wait for a clear face. Each wait is short, but a site can lose hours a day and a trade sequence can slip a week without any visible defect.

That has a second effect on quality. Trades under time pressure cut corners they would not otherwise cut, and supervision spends its day solving access problems instead of checking work. Ask the municipal engineer's office what access it expects to the plot and whether any road or drain works nearby will close the route. Request the bidder's lifting and storage plan with the quantities it assumes. Walk a recent site with the bidder and ask where the last delivery waited, where spoil went, and who cleaned the shared road.

How do you test a low bid before you award?

Test the bid by making the bidder explain the site, not the price. Ask for a logistics schedule: delivery points, turning circles, storage areas, spoil route, water point and the sequence of trades on the plan. Ask which machinery is committed, and request the rental or hire note that backs it. Ask the project's contract administrator which clauses cover site access, storage areas and cleaning, then read the specification clause by clause.

Compare the logistics schedule with the programme for anything that cannot physically happen at the same time, such as a delivery to a yard already full of spoil. Where the bidder cannot show a handling method, add the missing item and ask for a revised price rather than assuming it will be absorbed. This check is part of normal pre-award due diligence and must be confirmed against the contract.

What to do next

Ask the bidder for the method statement, logistics schedule and the delivery notes behind it, and ask the municipal engineer's office what access the plot allows. Walk one recent site together and record how trucks entered, turned and unloaded. Put the answers in a written query and request a revised price, so the award reflects the site you actually have.