Mobilization
Mobilization is the work of getting set up on site before production begins — moving in equipment, establishing the site office and utilities, and staging materials.
Also written as mobilisation, mob.
Last updated
Reviewed by Eric Collin · President and Founder of Firmo Construction, 20+ years in preconstruction and bid evaluation
It is real cost incurred before any measurable progress exists, which is why contracts often allow a mobilization payment and why it appears as an early line on the schedule of values. That combination makes it the most common place to find front-loading, so the line deserves substantiation rather than acceptance.
For subcontractors, the question that matters during comparison is how many mobilizations the price includes. A trade that must return to site three times because its work is split by other trades incurs three mobilizations, and a bidder that assumed one has priced a different job.
This assumption is frequently unstated. A proposal reading "price based on a single mobilization" is a qualification with a real dollar value, and the same assumption made silently by another bidder is the same risk without the disclosure.
Remobilization after a delay or a suspension is normally a compensable event, which is why the number of mobilizations assumed at bid becomes a claim baseline later. What was assumed should be written down at award, not reconstructed from memory afterwards.
- Qualifications
Qualifications are the conditions and assumptions a bidder attaches to its price — the circumstances under which that number holds.
- Schedule of values
A schedule of values is the breakdown of a contract price into line items, used to measure progress and to determine how much is payable in each application for payment.
- Temporary facilities
Temporary facilities are the services and structures a site needs while it is being built — power, lighting, water, heat, sanitation, fencing, and the site office.
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