Contractors continually complain that they don't have enough time to prepare accurate bids. Taking this into account, an owner and designer may decide to offer a generous four-week bidding period. All may go well until the fourth week when the deadline looms and bidders start asking questions. The fever reaches a peak the morning of the bid day revealing that the schedule's generous lead time has flown out the window. A bid form also usually includes an acknowledgement that the project must be completed within a certain general period of time, which is indicated in the bidding documents-a time that may be stated as a number of days from execution of the contract or as a specific completion date.
Contractors then know within a few days how much time is available to do the work.
They then must prepare the construction schedule which shows how the work will be done to meet the completion date. That schedule must take into consideration every step necessary to get the job done on time. It is even harder for them to understand why contractors would ask for more time or more money to pay for overtime when the required completion dates were known at bid submittal, and the contractors themselves prepared the construction schedules. Owners are not without blame for messing up the schedule of course. Action is required at various times during projects to choose among options, to execute documents, or to respond to requests from the rest of the construction team.