The Contractor Prequalification Section serves to prequalify prime contractors, subcontractors, and private consulting firms for projects or services let or advertised by the Department. In order to perform work for the Department, you must be prequalified, with some exceptions. Prime Contractors and Subcontractors, as referenced here, are firms that perform construction and/or maintenance for transportation facilities that include highways, airports, ferries, etc. Private Consultants, likewise, are firms that offer professional services such as engineering design, research, studies, etc. with regard to these same facilities.

Prime Contractors can pursue three different options. Two of these require prequalification and their information is located under this section at Prime Contractors and POC Prime Contractors. One of these, Small Business Enterprise (SBE) contractors are self-certified, and their requirements are found under the Contractor Management Section. As alluded to above, the two requiring prequalification are Prime Contractors (Prequalified Bidders) and Purchase Order Contract (POC) Prime Contractors. Prequalified Bidders can bid on Central-let contracts and purchase order contracts and can subcontract on any construction or maintenance contracts that are let under these two categories including SBE contracts. Central-let contracts are usually multi-million dollar projects, but can be in the range of $1/2 million to $100+ million. Purchase order contracts are usually five or six figure dollar projects, but can be up to $1.2 million. POC Prime Contractors can only bid on purchase order contracts. They cannot bid on Central-let contracts, but they can subcontract on any Central-let or purchase order contracts including SBE contracts. Prequalified Bidders are represented on the side bar as Prime Contractors. POC Prime Contractors are represented on the side bar as POC Prime Contractors. Note that only certified SBE contractors can bid on purchase order contracts that are let as SBE contracts. Also, please note that some contracts may require a contractor’s license (such as General or Electrical) and/or bonding. For contracts in excess of $300,000, bonding is required. A firm’s bonding capacity will determine the size of contract on which it may bid. If you wish to bid on contracts over $300,000, proof of bonding capability will be required during prequalification. Prime Contractors should have approved work codes for the types of work that they self-perform. In most cases, Prime Contractors must self-perform at least 40% of a given contract.

Subcontractors can perform work on Central-let contracts, purchase order contracts, and SBE contracts. Firms with the status of Subcontractor are allowed to bid as prime contractors on Division-let contracts that are not labeled as SBE, just as POC Prime Contractors can. The same requirements apply to bidding Subcontractors as to regular prime contractors. See the discussion on Prime Contractors above. For more details, please visit the Subcontractors section.

Private Consultants are professional services type firms that wish to perform work on Department contracts. Some of the categories of work that are performed by Private Consulting Firms are: design, planning, environmental, traffic, and right of way services. All firms submitting a Letter of Interest regarding an advertisement, whether as a firm or as part of a team, must be prequalified in the areas they wish to perform work. Most, but not necessarily all, of the work performed by Private Consulting Firms is performed during the Pre-construction phase of the project. For more details, please visit the Private Consulting Firms section.

You can also get additional information about each of these categories by clicking on the appropriate link under Navigation to the left.