Read your specs (Design column)

I took some course design specifications to the copy shop recently and met an engineer who was surprised to see my spec book was more than 200 pages – about as thick as a book he would use to prepare for a road or building project. Like most golf club members, he assumed golf course construction is less complicated than sticks and bricks construction, perhaps viewing it as more natural. The engineer thought my job consists of waving my arms and scratching my chin trying to decide how to ruin a golfer’s day with a devilishly placed bunker or green contour.

Golf course architects create a product in the field more than other types of design fields, but we can’t rely on plans completely, in part, because golf course plans aren’t as detailed as building plans.

However, golf courses are relatively complex mechanical structures that include irrigation and drainage systems and specially constructed greens, tees and fairways that must be designed and engineered before construction. Golf course construction projects usually cost millions of dollars, which is enough to warrant building-project detailed contracts to avoid money or quality disputes between owners and contractors.

A golf course architect, who is responsible for the fiscal aspects of a project as well as the physical design, serves and protects clients by preparing detailed plans and specifications. I spend 80 percent of my time communicating construction requirements and avoiding unpleasant and unnecessary conflicts. Only 20 percent is devoted to design.

Depicting these construction requirements is done mostly with plans and three-dimensional renderings from a computer. But what can’t be depicted well on plans is usually described in specifications, which are an integral part of the construction documents and a key to everyone understanding what’s expected during construction.

If you’re a project manager or owner’s representative involved in a renovation, I recommend reading the specs, which are usually divided into sections like this:

Invitation to bid. This might be included in the specs or sent beforehand. It provides a basic description of the project, including scope and time frame, so qualified bidders can determine if they’re interested in the project.

Public agencies often are required to post notice of bids in newspapers and construction publications to open bidding to the widest variety of contractors. Some agencies and most private clubs can prequalify who they want to bid the project, which makes the process easier. They can even choose to negotiate with just one or a few prospective contractors without formal bids. Bidding with plans and specs ensures proposals are comparing similar items.

Instructions to bidders. For those who choose to bid, this section provides information about the “who, what, where and when” of the bid process and details the requirements of an acceptable bid. Some bids require bid and/or construction bonds, as well as details such as proposed subcontractors, material suppliers, construction schedules and personnel. In other cases, those items are determined in a preconstruction meeting.

Other aspects covered include the criteria for accepting a bid, whether the bidder might make substitutions and other special considerations such as minimum insurance requirements, fair employment practices or other items the owner might demand.

Bid propsal. This section might resemble the architect’s cost estimate but with the numbers left out for the contractor to fill in. The estimate will include a signature page requiring the bidder to acknowledge he has received addenda – which are supplemental clarifications issued to bidders – that aren’t in collusion with any other person in preparing this bid. If the budget is small, the architect might prepare alternate bids with quantity reductions or specification changes, which, if accepted, will reduce the cost.

General conditions. This section includes construction terms that are common to almost any construction project. Professional architecture and engineering organizations have standard general conditions. These are court-tested and appropriately distributed tasks, responsibilities and risks to the various parties.
In case of discrepancies, the general conditions usually list which construction document has precedence when determining correct construction.

Special conditions. One size doesn’t fit all. So, the special conditions section modifies general conditions for site- or project-specific needs, often replacing boilerplate clauses with more specific information, which often is more restrictive to the contractor and would govern the project. Sometimes the modifications are in a separate section called the supplementary general conditions that alter the general conditions to what the owner wants.

In either case, the special conditions section also covers project-specific conditions such as the owner’s representative, permitting requirements, schedules and liquidated damage provisions.

Technical specifications. In the technical specs section, the architect – and consultants such as irrigation designers – detail the larger aspects of a project such as:

• Clearing;
• Earthmoving (lake construction and shaping);
• Feature construction (greens, tees, bunkers);
• Cart paths;
• Irrigation;
• Grassing; and
• Performance-based specifications, which require a specific result, rather than a specific method of construction.

This leaves the means and methods of construction more properly with the contractor but has some implications for the owner’s representative.
Construction details. Small graphical depictions of construction details might be a part of the plan sheets or specifications. Some construction items, such as cart paths, lend themselves to visual representation. A picture can be worth a thousand words.

Materials section. While most golf course construction practices have become more standardized nationwide, materials are job specific. The cost of materials varies tremendously among projects and affect the bid price considerably, so it’s imperative for the architect to specify what materials are parts of the bid. In some areas, different greens mixes could vary in price from $12 to $50 per ton. Bidders who assume they can use less expensive material would have quite an advantage, unless the architect clarifies exactly what the owner wants.

While specs are never perfect – and are only as good as the people on the project – tightly written specifications are essential to a smoothly run construction project. GCN