Bidder's Guide

Bidding

Follow the Electronic Bidding Guide to help you complete your electronic bid form.

For more information regarding electronic bidding, please visit the Caltrans Electronic Bidding website at http://ppmoe.dot.ca.gov/des/oe/electronic-bidding.html

Finding work to bid

Caltrans weekly ads
The weekly ads page is a complete listing of everything we currently have out for bid, as well as a list of immediately upcoming projects for bid. Simplified listings at the top of the page put all advertised projects into one group, as well as all upcoming projects into another. "Attachments", a bit further down the page are the traditional listings we have used for advertising in the past. Attachment A is a good place to look if you only want to see projects that are new to our advertising listing as of the current week. All ads are refreshed weekly at 9am on Monday mornings, Tuesday if Monday happens to be a holiday.
Listings for individual projects will allow bidders to see details of each project, and links are provided for those who want to see the contract documents, order a bid book, place a prime ad or opt-in on the contract, or see planholder lists. Planholder lists are composed of those who have ordered a bid book and are updated immediately when a bidder places their order online.

Bid item search
The bid item search is a long-requested feature that helps bidders find projects that they want to bid by the searching for the bid items in those contracts. Partial bid item descriptions can be used to find projects.

Bidder Inquiries
If you have a question on the buildability of a project that isn't covered in the plans or specifications, our bidder inquiries are the right place to find your answer. Go to the inquiry site for the district you're bidding in, and submit your question. Or view previously submitted questions and answers. We want all bidders to bid with confidence, so if something is unclear, make sure you ask.

Planholder Search
Our planholder search is an up to the minute view of who is bidding all our currently advertised projects. Now that we are using our electronic advertising system, bidding planholders are defined as those who order a bid book from us. You can also use this system to search for opt-in participants, defined as those who wish to subcontract or supply materials to prime bidders. Options for searching by DBE or small business status are provided to help meet your contract goals.

Looking at bid results

Bid Summaries
The bid summary page serves two functions. On the left side of the page, verified bid summaries are organized by bid opening date, then by contract. Clicking on a link will open the PDF bid summary for that contract, showing all bidders, their verified bids, subcontractor lists, and item prices for all bidders. On the right side, we list our non-verified preliminary bid opening results. These results will show up as verified bid summaries, after verification is completed.

Post-bid files
All files submitted to Caltrans are now scanned and uploaded, to be accessible via this page. Bid books, subcontractor submittals, good faith submittals, bid protests, and all other public record documents are scanned and uploaded for everyone to see and review. This was done as part of our effort to increase transparency, as well as assist bidders with their public record requests.

Awarded project search
Find out who has been awarded contracts in the past. Searches are available by district or full contract number, by bid opening or award date, by contractor name, or type of work. Results will display dates, contractors, bids, location, and type of work.

For more information

Statement of Going Contracts
If you've ever wanted to know what projects are currently under construction, where they are, who's performing them, and how complete they are, this is what you need. View current reports, or reports up to a year ago.

Construction Contract Standards
This page has links for all the standard specifications and plans that Caltrans contracts refer to, as well as all the boilerplate specifications that are used in the assembly of our special provisions documents. Manuals for plan preparation, past years' standards, as well as a preview of standards in development are available here. If you want to see what goes into developing our contracts or want to understand them better, this is a very good resource.

Frequently Asked Questions about Electronic Bidding
If we get a question that we think deserves publishing, it goes to our FAQ page. Questions and answers are grouped by category. If you're new to bidding Caltrans projects, this is recommended reading.