The Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction in cooperation with the Purchasing Department competitively bids all construction work unless a negotiated price is agreed to by the Director of Campus Planning, Design and Construction. Contracts in excess of $75,000 require the approval of the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Business, Finance, and Administrative Services.
Campus Planning, Design, and Construction may assign any dollar size construction work to Facilities Services, or invite Facilities Services to bid against outside contractors. In the event Facilities Services is selected for construction work and it desires to subcontract any portion of the work to an outside contractor, University competitive bidding procedures are used for the subcontracted portions.
Campus Planning, Design, and Construction has the option to forego competitive bidding for construction jobs estimated to cost under $10,000 when it seems to be reasonable or necessary, provided that a written justification statement supporting this reasonable or necessary situation is signed by the Director of the Campus Planning, Design, and Construction. When a negotiated price is to be obtained, Design and Construction must get two or more informative prices from contractors who have previously performed quality work for the University. These prices should be confirmed in writing and held as documentation to support this process. If only one contractor is to be approached and dealt with in arriving at a price, prior written approval is required from the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Business, Finance, and Administrative Services.
When obtaining bids for construction, the Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction, along with professional consultants when applicable will prepare design specifications and other necessary documentation for submission to a selected list of qualified contractors deemed suitable for the scope of the work. The following procedures will then be observed:
- Bid packages are to be issued to the prospective bidders with the required form of proposal (sealed quotations) returned directly to the Purchasing Department by the specified date and time.
- Bidders are required to attend a pre-bid meeting at which time the documents will be reviewed.
- Questions relating to a clarification of the documents are to be directed to Campus Planning, Design, and Construction. When necessary, clarifications, additions or deletions to the documents will be issued by addenda to all bidders by Campus Planning, Design, and Construction.
- The returned, sealed bid shall be time-stamped and secured by the Purchasing Department until the bid opening time. The bid opening shall be carried out by the Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction, and their consultants as appropriate and shall be recorded by Purchasing on a bid tabulation form prepared by Design and Construction. The bid proposals are then retained by Campus Planning, Design, and Construction for evaluation and the bid security deposits are held by Purchasing.
- The Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction will review the bid proposals and select the successful contractor based on Campus Planning, Design, and Construction’s technical evaluation of the proposals, cost information, and terms and conditions as submitted. Campus Planning, Design, and Construction shall confirm and verify the low qualified bid.
- Upon notification by Campus Planning, Design, and Construction, Purchasing will return all bid security deposits except that of the successful bidder until the contract is fully executed.
- In the event the bids exceed the budgeted allocation for the work, Campus Planning, Design, and Construction may elect to re-bid a list of reductions between the lowest bidders and review the result with Purchasing for final selection.
- If the lowest bid is not selected, a written justification document must be provided and reviewed by the Purchasing Department.
- The Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction, shall prepare the contract to be signed by the contractor and thereupon submitted, together with an insurance certificate, a requisition and justification, if required, to the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Business, Finance, and Administrative Services for approval and signature.
- Campus Planning, Design, and Construction will forward a fully executed copy of the contract to the contractor, and to the architect if appropriate, and Purchasing will issue a purchase order and have the Comptroller’s Office return the bid security deposit.