One tends to think of “government” in a monolithic sense, but it comprises multiple agencies … at the federal, state and local levels. Each agency awards construction contracts in its individual capacity, which leads to a question: Can one agency’s management of a construction contract cause compensable delay to another agency’s physically interrelated construction contract?
A Texas court was presented with a situation in which a state DOT project was adjacent to, and physically interrelated with, a county highway construction project. The contractor on the county job alleged it had been delayed and disrupted by activities on the state project. Was this “owner-caused” delay?
The other case in this issue involved a state procurement statute that limited bid protest rights to issues where at least 10% of the estimated contract value was called into question. Was this a matter of standing to sue, which is discretionary and can be waived? Or, was the dollar threshold an ironclad jurisdictional requirement?
