AEC definitions
A construction bulletin is a package of revised drawings or instructions issued during construction. It tells the field what the new design is. It changes the contract price or time only when a change order, or another instrument the contract names, says so. An addendum is the cousin used during bidding, before the contract is signed.
Definition
Offices use bulletin, design bulletin, or construction bulletin for the same habit: a numbered PDF of clouds and narrative after award. The contractor prices the bulletin if it adds scope. The architect should not assume a bulletin is a no-cost clarification. If it is only a minor change with no price or time effect, an ASI may be the right form. If the owner needs the work to proceed before price agreement, a construction change directive is the form. The bulletin is the graphic. The change instrument is the money.
In depth
Each revised sheet gets a revision entry that cites the bulletin. The narrative lists the sheets. A bulletin email with no sheet list will be built from whichever PDF someone opened.
Void sketches that the bulletin replaces so the field does not keep both.
The contractor reviews the bulletin against the contract scope. Clarifications that add nothing are answered as such. New scope becomes a proposal. The log should show bulletin number, proposal number, and change-order number as three links.
Building the whole bulletin before the proposal is how unpaid work starts. Ask which parts are authorized.
No cost and no time: ASI, if the contract uses one. Cost or time, and the owner can wait: proposal request, then change order. Cost or time, and the owner cannot wait: change directive. A bulletin can attach to any of these. It does not replace them.
Addenda stop at award. Issuing an 'addendum' during construction confuses the bid record.
The superintendent's current set includes the bulletin. The record drawings later include it too.
A bulletin that lived only in an inbox is invisible to both.
Examples
Bulletin 4 revises a toilet room. The sheet revision cites bulletin 4. The contractor prices two extra fixtures. A change order follows before construction of that revision.
Bulletin 5 only corrects a room name. The contractor confirms no cost. An ASI or a no-cost record is filed. No change order is required.
A field plot without bulletin 4 is pulled. The current set is the one with the cloud.
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