3.3.5 The Pass-Through Principle

In the interest of clarity and simplicity, discussions in the preceding sections were generally confined to the owner, architect, and contractor, without many specific references to subconsultants or subcontractors. This approach was taken intentionally, and within the context of an idea that is referred to as the “pass-through” principle. The “pass-through” principle is elaborated upon in other sections of this Operations Manual. Simply stated here, the pass-through idea means that the subconsultants are generally responsible to the architect (primary design consultant) in the same way that the architect is responsible to the owner (and vice versa). Similarly, each subcontractor is generally responsible to the general (prime) contractor or construction manager in the same manner and to the same extent that the prime contractor or construction manager is responsible to the owner for the work of that particular subcontractor (and vice versa). This issue is clarified at this point in order to confirm that consideration of these important entities has not been neglected but has been included within the parameters of the relationships as summarized here.

In addition, it is often difficult to read and write about many construction topics without encountering words like “reasonable” or “acceptable” or other such words that may appear on the surface to clarify levels of quality and performance expected. In practical application, however, exactly the opposite is most often the case with such words. It is important to realize that whenever any adjective is used to describe some measure of acceptability that is not specifically definable and/or quantifiable (such as “flat” or “hard,” as opposed to “level within 1/8″ in 10′ in any direction” or “95% compaction”), a flag should pop up in your mind that yet another gray area is sure to develop into muddy water if the subjective criterion is not clarified immediately and definitively. The word “reasonable” has been and will regrettably continue to cause serious problems in all types of construction contracts.