Competitive Bidding for Engineering Services

The use of competitive bidding for engagement of engineering services continues to increase. A review of the current status of the practice with particular reference to public agencies is presented and analyzed. Both advantages and disadvantages of various methods used are discussed. The use of competitive bidding is detrimental to the quality of engineering services, and invariably results in an adversarial client relationship. Guidelines are provided for those instances where competitive bidding is the only method proposed for selection of the engineer. The engineer is cautioned that his relationship to the client will be adversarial and appropriate contact provisions are required.