The Preconstruction Bottleneck: How Design Audits Get You to Site Faster

The fastest way to kill a project schedule is a messy tender process. Here is how sanitizing your drawings before the bid accelerates your start date.

For a developer, preconstruction is a race against time. The land is bought, the financing is ticking, and every month you spend stuck in the "planning phase" eats away at your IRR (Internal Rate of Return).

You want to get a contractor signed and break ground. But there is one major obstacle that consistently drags preconstruction to a halt: The RFI Loop.

The "Tennis Match" That Kills Momentum

We have all seen it happen. You issue a tender package to three General Contractors. You expect pricing back in four weeks.

Instead, you get a flood of questions (RFIs).

• "The structural drawings don't match the architectural plans on Level 3."

• "The door schedule is missing from the spec."

• "Section A contradicts Section B."

Your design team scrambles to answer. The contractors delay their pricing because they "can't quantify the risk." The four-week tender turns into eight weeks. Momentum dies.

And worse? When contractors see messy drawings, they don't just ask questions—they add price padding. They look at the risk, double it, and add it to your bottom line to cover themselves.