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Public Notice

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Attention contractors:

New DVBE Requirements Effective With March 21, 2011 Advertisements
The Department of Transportation will soon implement new DVBE goal setting procedures on its non-federal aid construction contracts over $250,000.
Effective March 21, 2011, state funded contracts advertised will have the following DVBE goals:

• $1 million and under 5% DVBE goals.
• $1 million and $5 million 3% DVBE goals.
• Over $5 million No goals. DVBE incentive provisions apply.

Bidders are reminded that good faith efforts do not apply to these contracts.
Bidders are cautioned to use certified DVBE firms performing commercially-usefull functions on the contract in order to receive credit towards the DVBE goals or incentives.
Each contract advertisement, Notice to Bidders and Special Provisions contain the DVBE requirements.
If you have any questions about the DVBE goals, please submit a bidder's inquiry.

New! (Feb 2011) If you'd like to pull back your submitted bid to make corrections, make sure you fill out the latest signature card and fax it in to the bidder's exchange. We also have a new release of bid documents form to keep with your bid runner in the event that you need to revise a bid. Both files are available on our Contractor Info Table, under the Bid Opening column.

CREB Projects
A site to provide information on the Clean Renewable Energy Bonds projects, which will install solar energy (photovoltaic) panels at various state facilities throughout the state.

Design-Build
Enter this site to view the Department's draft documents for the Design-Build Demonstration Program. Please submit your comments and questions.

If you need help with bonding, check out the Small Business Administration's Technical Assistance Bonding programs at www.sba.gov

Information on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Projects - This is a list of upcoming and awarded ARRA-funded projects.

Information on Bond Funded Projects - List of advertised and upcoming bond projects and their status

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Have you had success using opt-in or our contractor advertising listing? Please let us know by dropping us a note on our feedback page. We'd love to hear from you.

Welcome to Office Engineer

The new 2010 Standards are up
The new 2010 standards are published and in use. Please take a moment to review the new format of specifications, take a look at the quick guide for an overview of the changes, and view training materials. The 1st projects using the 2010 standards will be advertised in early 2012. It is expected that most if not all projects advertised in 2013 will use the 2010 standards.

Award Status Tool
We have a new tool available to help our bidders track their projects as they progress through award in our office. Our Award Status Search Tool will let you know what award milestones have and haven't been met on any contract that we're currently processing. Questions? Comments? Let us know what you think.

Caltrans Business Plan for DBE Outreach
We have posted our Business Plan for DBE Outreach for our federally funded projects. This should shed some clarity on our UDBE program, as well as policies in evaluating good faith efforts.

Centralized Bidder Inquiry System
Today, we are trying out a new format for bidder inquiries, starting with 3 projects that advertised today. Rather than go through the link to the bidder inquiry page that then directs you to the Caltrans district or region that your project is in, the inquiries will be integrated into the project advertisement listing.

A count of inquiries with responses will be shown, and by clicking on this link, you'll be able to submit a new inquiry. A free Caltrans Connect account will be necessary, but anyone bidding on our projects should already have one.
With the new inquiry system, we're hoping to get responses up faster, get updates back to the person asking, and make it easier for everyone else to know of and get the answers for the questions they might have on the projects. From our side, we're hoping to take a look at the inquiries and use them to put out better, more clear projects in the future.

Take back your bid for edits
We allow bidders to take back a bid for edits, if they need to correct a price for a last-minute quote, or make other changes. On our contractor info page, we have a Contractor Signature Card, which will be kept on file in our Bidder's Exchange. The bid runner can then carry a release form for each bid they're submitting, in the event that the bid needs to be recalled for edits. If you have any questions about how this works, let us know.

Quick Reference Brochure for Contractors
A quick reference guide on where to get information on bidding caltrans projects, getting bid results, and doing business with Caltrans. (Updated August 2010)

Post-bid files are coming in
We get a lot of public record requests as part of the bidding and award process. Bidders will want to review other bidder's documents, and this usually involves a trip to our office, standing at the copy machine, and a lot of tedious work. Internally, we also make a lot of copies for distribution to our various departments when preparing a bid. Not anymore.
Check out our Post-bid file page. We are now scanning the low 3 bidders' bid documents (more if necessary) as they come in and posting them on the web. If you want to see someone else's bid, you can now just view it directly on our website. We're also scanning documents, such as subcontractor percentage submittals, DBE and DVBE submittals, bid protest letters and responses, and all other public documents submitted to us.
We are currently working to scan all documents submitted after July 1, 2010, and plan to soon get to the point where we will start scanning documents as they come in, and scanning bids immediately after our own internal verification. We look forward to any feedback you may have on this new feature.

Caltrans Bidders' Exchange
Our Plans Counter is at 1727 30th Street in Sacramento (the Farmer’s Market III building).
The Caltrans Bidders' Exchange has several paper copies of each advertised contract on hand for viewing. We will not sell paper copies of bid documents. However, we assist bidders with basic questions about finding bidding opportunities and bidding basics and navigating our website.
Our Bidders' Exchange can answer 95% of the questions you have about finding and bidding contracts. Of course, contract specific technical questions will continue to be handled through the bidder inquiry process.

New North State bid opening and plans counter location coming
We have a couple exciting moves planned for our contracting partners that bid in districts 1-6, 9 and 10.
The first news is our plans counter will be moving to our Farmer's Market 3 location at 1727 30th St in Sacramento on June 1, 2010. Rather than our traditional plans counter, which has been a packing and shipping operation, we are moving more to a customer service focus. We'll have workstations set up to allow contractors to search for projects they want to bid and learn how to bid these projects. Staff will be available to help you be successful with us. Hard copies of our plans and specs will be available for viewing.
The second function that will move to the new location is our bid openings. Bid openings at Farmer's Market 3 will begin on July 6, 2010. Until then, we will continue to open bids at our traditional 1120 N Street location, even after we move our plans counter. Public parking in the area is available.
See our letter to industry on this topic.

View Larger Map

E-Advertisements to start on all projects on April 5
See our letter to industry regarding our new E-ad process. Beginning on April 5, we will cease sending out paper copies of our plans and specs. All documents will be in PDF format for easy downloading and viewing. Bidding contractors will be able to request a free bid book for any contract they'd like to bid on, which will be overnight mailed at no cost. A free Caltrans Connect account will be necessary to order bid books, but registration is very easy and only takes a minute. We have a tutorial prepared for our new bid book ordering process, available here. We welcome your feedback.

I'm the low bidder, now what?
Take a look at our new presentation: "I'm the low bidder - now what?" This will guide you through various stages of our bid opening and award process. This is highly recommended reading for the new bidders, as well as those that have been doing business with us for years. Updated April 2010

Update on Assembly Bill X4 21 regarding DVBE goals is available here

Caltrans Connect is here
Want to delete that opt-in record you submitted? Or change it? Would you like to avoid filling in your information every time you advertise for help on a project? Connect is here. Try it out. Accounts are free, and it's a 2 minute process. See a list of projects you're interested in. See addenda for only those projects. Let us know what you think.

Calendar of bid openings
Multiple people have asked for a calendar of bid openings, and now we have it. Check it out here. Click on any contract number to get project information for it. As always, feel free to drop us a line and let us know how we can better serve you.

E-Addenda is the new Addenda
Having addenda listings on our webpage is nothing new, but starting on August 1, we are going to move entirely to electronic addenda as a cost and labor saving change. We did a pilot test on 5 projects and it went very smoothly. Rather than shipping addenda, we will instead be sending an email notification to all planholders and opt-in users, instructing them to go to our addenda site and view addenda there. When ordering plans, please be sure to use our new order form, and fill in your email address, or your order will not be processed. We will be sending out reminders in the next few weeks to those ordering plans with the older form.

New! We've added a new feature that allows bidding/prime contractors to directly list what assistance they would like to have on projects they intend to bid.  On our pages for advertised projects, clicking "advertise for help" allows prime contractors to list their contact information, items they need subs/suppliers/assistance on, and any special requirements they also have.  Interested subcontractors and suppliers can view all prime contractors looking for help and contact them.  We hope this service helps us better connect our contracting partners together and helps everyone in preparing bids and meeting goals.

We now have a teleconference line up for those that want to listen in by phone to our bid openings. Details on how to dial in are here.

Take a look at our How to Submit a Responsive Bid presentation for a primer on the do's and don'ts of submitting a bid for a construction project. See lots of helpful tips for both new and seasoned contractors for submitting a better bid. Updated April 2010

Check out our web page tour / tutorial of all the new features we've added this year. Maybe there's a feature you didn't catch, or you want to know a little more about the features we offer. Is there something you think needs a little more explanation? Make sure to leave us some feedback and let us know what you want to see.

We want to hear what you think of the Office Engineer page, how we're doing, and what we can do to improve our service to the contracting community. Drop us a note at our feedback page with your comments or suggestions. Suggestions can be anonymous, or if you'd like a response, leave an email address or telephone number and we'll get back to you.

Our bid item search tool is now online! Search advertised projects by either bid item work description or by item code numbers. See which projects fit your criteria, then see lists of prime or subcontractors also holding plans for that project.

Caltrans DES-OE Mission, Vision and Values *
A brief description of the who, what and why of Caltrans DES-OE.

Please participate in our Bidder Survey and join our Bidder's List. If you've previously completed it, please take the time to fill it out again, and we'll update your information.

Try our Project Look Ahead Database for information on upcoming projects. Create an account for automated emails when projects are added or modified, or get customized views for projects in your area. Export data for your own reporting needs and project workload forecasting.

Advertised Projects (Projects for Bid)
Provides a listing of newly advertised major highway construction projects, projects that have already advertised, and a tentative list of projects to be advertised. Contractors can view a list of bid items of projects advertised. It provides timely information on addenda, list of plan holders on projects out to bid, and awarded contracts.

Bidder Activity Summary Report
Monthly bidder activity summary in .pdf format.
 
Bids Opened and Awarded Contracts
Bid Results, Bid Summary and Bid Summary library information. Search for Awarded Contracts.

Contract Item Cost Data Summary and Coded Contract Item Lists
This is a tabulation of standard contract items (List of Basic Engineering Estimating System (BEES) Items) and reflects the averages of the low bidder's prices for those items.

Ready to List & Construction Contract Award Guide (RTL Guide)

Links to Other Resources

Standards

Construction contract standards can now be found at this link.