Lots of places have legal requirements to take low bid contracts. This was largely an anti-corruption measure as it was deemed easier to get work out of a low

Lots of places have legal requirements to take low bid contracts. This was largely an anti-corruption measure as it was deemed easier to get work out of a low bid contractor than an accurate accounting out of a corrupt process. But now there exist a whole class of contractor that exist purely to provide the lowest possible level of compliance with municipal contracts. They spend more on legal defense than construction in many cases.