1. The Government awarded Contract No. DACA63-86-C-0043 to appellant on 11 April 1986
to build a fuel cell shop for the C5-A aircraft at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas. The
contract price was $5,831,361. (R4, tab 2)
2. The project consisted of a hangar with space for related maintenance, administrative
and storage areas (R4, tab 2). The hangar, known as the high bay area, was 60 feet tall
and enclosed an area of 37,000 square feet. The superstructure of the hangar was to be
constructed of long span structural steel (tr. 3/213; R4, tab 250 at 1). The low bay
area housed the support functions for the facility (tr. 3/213). The steel deficiencies
for which the contract was terminated were located in the high bay area (R4, tab 2).
3. The roof of the high bay area was supported by steel trusses. The carrying trusses
(CT-trusses) or main trusses consisted of a top chord, a bottom chord and interlacing web
members in the middle. The CT-trusses ran north and south and spanned up to 264 feet 2
inches. The T-trusses or secondary trusses also consisted of a top chord, a bottom chord
and interlacing web members. The T-trusses ran perpendicular to the CT-trusses and spanned
up to 33 feet in the east/west direction (tr. 3/214-18, 4/23-29, 47; R4, tabs 208, 345).
The Contract
4. Note 5 on Drawing Sequence No. 24 required ASTM A325 bearing bolt connections unless
otherwise noted. No other fasteners were "noted" in the contract documents. Experts for
both sides, as well as the fabricator, agreed that the requirement to use bearing bolts was
mandatory. (R4, tab 206; tr. 5/217-20, 17/140-42, 21/151, 27/50)
5. Drawing Sequence No. 35 included the typical details for the truss connections. The
drawing depicted the truss connections as bolted connections, but did not indicate the number
of bolts required for each connection. (R4, tab 209; tr. 5/160, 21/151-53)
6. The fabricator was not responsible for designing the connections at issue in this appeal.
Paragraph 3.3 of section 5C of the specifications limited the fabricator's responsibility for
design to the following:
. . . non-standard connections . . . not shown on the contract drawings shall be designed by
the fabricator. . . . Non-standard connections are those connections that require analysis and
are not readily selected from AISC Tables or other applicable publications.
