April 07, 2009 05:04 PM UTC

Tough Times Make For Good Bids

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• by: Colorado Pols

No $1,000 toilet seats with federal stimulus dollars here, as the AP reports:

Hungry highway contractors have underbid CDOT’s cost estimates on the first five federally funded stimulus-program projects by nearly 10 percent, saving the state $1.43 million that it can put toward other projects.

Contractors have been telling officials they can expect highly competitive bids on the stimulus-funded projects, which have provided a flood of money into an industry that has been hurting for work this season.

The Colorado Department of Transportation announced the apparent low bidders on five projects last week. Internal estimates on their construction cost totaled nearly $15 million. The total of the low bids came to just more than $13.5 million.

“If this trend continues, we may be able to accumulate enough funding to add more construction projects to our list,” CDOT Director Russ George said.