STEPS FOR SOLICITING BIDS AND AWARDING CONTRACTS By WILLIAM T. SUNLEY, Illinois Department of Transportation

Winter is the time to prepare for another construction season. Everyone is beginning to develop their annual maintenance program and possible construction projects on their roads and streets. As you begin your preparation to award contracts and purchase material, several items should be considered.

One of the first things to consider is: When is it necessary to hold a letting and take bids? For counties and municipalities and for townships with populations greater than 10,000, bids must normally be taken when the cost of construction or materials exceeds $10,000. For other townships, bidding is necessary when the cost exceeds $5,000.

Now that you have determined that a letting is necessary, you must prepare bidding documents which consist of plans and/or specifications and a bidding proposal. These should be legible and clearly describe the work to be done and/or the materials to be supplied. It is advantageous to use the Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction issued by the Illinois Department of Transportation as the specifications. This is required if Motor Fuel Tax funds are being used. Standard pay items as contained in these specifications should be used where possible.

Special provisions modifying the Standard Specifications or providing additional information should be clear and concise. While you often will have the same bidders each year who are knowledgeable about the requirements of your agency, there is always the possibility that there could be a new bidder who does not have this familiarity. A bidder must have a clear understanding of what is involved in the project in order to submit the lowest possible bid. This will also help you avoid problems with the contractor during construction.

Once an agency is ready to proceed with a letting, a date, place, and time for the letting should be set. Appropriate advertisements should be published in local newspapers. This is required by statute for road districts and counties. In addition, IDOT publishes a weekly Notice to Contractors Bulletin each Thursday in which all lettings for Motor Fuel Tax projects are advertised. Notices of advertisement must appear in the bulletin not less than eleven days before the date on which bids are to be received. This will enable the advertisement to appear in two issues of the bulletin. As a service to local agencies, projects financed with other funds may also be advertised in the weekly bulletin. Contact your IDOT District Bureau of Local Roads and Streets the week before the advertisement is to be included in this bulletin. Additional lead time is required if the plans and proposals must be reviewed and approved by the Department.

A local agency must also decide if they want prospective bidders to be prequalified. Prequalification is a procedure to evaluate a contractor's capability to undertake and satisfactorily complete an awarded contract. This procedure considers such items as a contractor's financial resources, organization and experience, plants and equipment, and past performances. It is required that contractors be prequalified with IDOT for MFT construction contracts estimated to cost

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$30,000 or more. The local agencies have the option to require prequalification for other type work.

When prequalification is required, bidding proposals are to be given out only to prequalified contractors. When you issue a contractor a bidding proposal, you are considering him qualified to perform the work and you must be willing to award the contract to the firm should their bid be low and the contractor's available financial capacity is adequate. Other proposals can be given to potential material suppliers and subcontractors; however, these proposals should be plainly marked "Not For Bidding". When clarifications or addenda to a proposal are necessary during an advertisement period, this information should be sent to all prospective bidders in a timely manner.

All bidders should be required to submit a proposal guaranty as part of their proposal. This proposal guaranty may be a bid bond, a bank cashier's check, or a certified check. This guaranty gives the local agencies some protection if a contractor is the low responsible bidder but refuses to accept a contract for a project.

Bids received should be opened and read publicly at the time and place specified in the advertisement. Any bid received after the time specified in the advertisement should be returned to the bidder unopened.

After the bids have been opened, the proposals should be checked to ensure that all bid prices have been properly entered and that all forms in the proposal have been fully executed. The local agency has the right to reject a proposal which has not been properly submitted. An award of the contract should be made to the low responsible bidder if the proposal, including the bid price, is considered acceptable.

By following these procedures you can ensure that all contractors are being treated fairly and that the contractors will be able to give their lowest possible bid. •

December 1991 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 27