MD moves to e-bidding for transportation projects

January 11, 2017

Dive Brief:

• Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced the state’s newly launched electronic bidding service for contractors working with the Department of Transportation (MDOT) will save the private and public sectors a total of $800,000 per year, according to Equipment World.
• Used by approximately 40 transportation departments nationwide, Info Tech’s Bid Express system lets contractors submit bids, download contract documents and receive real-time project updates.
• Heavy civil contractors stand to save $1,000 per bid in printing and delivery costs associated with the prior hard copy process, while the State Highway Administration will recoup $68,000 a year paid to Maryland Correctional Enterprises for data entry.

Dive Insight:

With the move to an e-bidding system for all transportation work by mid 2017, Maryland enters the digital construction age and will no longer be dependent on correctional facility workers for manual data entry of project bids. They’ll join several dozen other transportation agencies nationwide that have adopted the Bid Express system, and countless others moving away from paper-based project bidding.

In 2010, the Federal Highway Administration created the Every Day Counts initiative to pinpoint and fund technological and process improvements in how the agency interacts with contractors. In an interview with Construction Dive last year, FHWA administrator Gregory Nadeau said that states electing to adopt e-construction platforms were saving $40,000 per project on average.