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Project Info
Order Number UPC State Project Number Last Date to Post Questions
I12 105808 (NFO)0058-961-S38,N501 7/17/2015
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    The last date to post questions has passed. Any questions posed 72 hours before the letting date may not be answered. Export Q&A    
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Subject: Bid Item Pricing Type: Other
Question Date: 7/17/2015 10:48:14 AM
VDOT awarded Order G51 in the 10/22/2014 letting, which is very similar to this project. The low bid for this project priced Item 10128 Aggregate Base Material 21B at $0.01/TN, which is blatantly unbalanced. This item is a material that is processed for the job, so it has an unavoidable cost of much greater than the awarded unit price. The item is not for a contractor’s cost that could be fully depreciated prior to the project. This bid would most likely be rejected in other states. Rejection would be based on an understanding that awarding contracts for bids with extremely unbalanced prices for these types of items provides an advantage/incentive for a Contractor to utilize this strategy in order to be awarded the project. As a result, this practice would likely lead to a disadvantage for the state/tax payer in quality of the product received and/or a reduction in quantity installed when compared to the quantity that actually required for the project. VDOT 2007 R&B Specification 102.06(g) states that bids may be rejected if unit prices in the bid are obviously unbalanced. Understanding the key word is “may”, please provide a clearer understanding of the threshold that would cause VDOT to exercise this clause, so that a “ground rule” is established to allow all bidders to comfortably provide proposals with similar pricing strategies without concern that the state will reject the bid.  
Answer   Date: 7/17/2015 11:49:16 AM
In order for a bid to be unbalanced, there needs to be a deliberately low priced item and a correspondingly high priced item. This allows the bidder to take advantage of overrun situations. There is no risk to the Commonwealth when a contractor merely bids an item low. VDOT accepts the lowest overall bid price.  
 

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