Showed up for a 6 a.m. pre-bid at Maple Creek sub — promised we could set 36 poles in 10 days — then spent five minutes negotiating with a rooster on a padmount while tallying crew hours and fuel. Anyone else trying to land the next contract and juggle payroll while the jobsite keeps turning into slapstick?
I’m with the contingency crowd — “one-pager — rooster gets contingency.” I add one step: ask the PM for a 10‑minute route drive before you promise 36/10 so you can eyeball gates, rock, and spans; it’s saved me from faceplanting a bid more than once — you get that chance at Maple Creek?