Infrastructure in Southern California is constantly being evaluated by authorities to determine how best to meet the needs of the population. As more people choose to work and live in this densely-populated area, additional stress is put on existing public facilities, including roads and utilities. The process of evaluating, planning, developing and implementing improvements to public infrastructure can be long, and require many revisions before construction actually begins. From the earliest stages of any infrastructure project, related bids are posted by state and local government offices, which can lead to new business opportunities for vendors.
From Concept to Construction
Los Angeles is the second-largest city in the United States; with its ever-growing population, the city’s infrastructure is constantly being evaluated and improved upon. In recent years a number of large-scale projects have been proposed for the Greater Los Angeles area and many are now in various stages of development, including the California High-Speed Rail project and infrastructure upgrades to accommodate the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Recently, a partnership of firms proposed an ambitious plan to address LA’s massive traffic problems. Los Angeles is notorious for its crippling traffic, which makes commuting time-consuming and deters people from visiting and moving into certain areas of the city. In the preliminary proposal developed by ride sharing company LYFT, architecture firm Perkins+Will and transportation consultants Nelson/Nygaard, the companies proposed initiatives to increase the use of mass transit and ride-sharing systems in the LA area and to prepare the city for an anticipated influx of self-driving/autonomous vehicles. [i]
Under the proposal, roads like Wilshire Boulevard - which is currently 10 lanes wide, with two lanes designated for mixed use by cars and buses - would see dramatic changes: Standard car traffic would be reduced on Wilshire to only three lanes, autonomous buses would get two dedicated lanes, and passenger loading zones would be established for ride-sharing pick-ups and drop-offs. [i]
Today, approximately 30,000 people travel along Wilshire Boulevard every hour; with the proposed changes, it is estimated that the road would handle upwards of 77,000 people an hour. The new bus lanes alone would be able to move 35,000 people per hour, 5000 more than the entirety of the current road design. Non-vehicle traffic would also increase thanks to the addition of wider sidewalks, improved landscaping and new protected bike lanes. [ii]
The redesign of LA’s streets is currently in its infancy; if or when it becomes a reality, the current proposals will likely have gone through a number of changes resulting from consultations with residents, city planners and others all of which must be done before construction can begin.
From concept to construction, the many steps needed to begin and complete any infrastructure project can provide vendors with numerous opportunities to find government bids. Feasibility, engineering and environmental studies must be completed as part of major projects, which vendors in these sectors can contribute to. Once preliminary work for a project is completed, physical construction can begin, creating new bid opportunities for vendors in other areas.
Searching for the Right Opportunity
For some large construction and infrastructure projects, bids related to the project may be posted by various counties, municipalities and government agencies. Locating and keeping track of new bids can be a challenging and unwieldy process for vendors to handle without dedicated resources. To locate the right construction-related bids for their businesses, vendors have to research and identify many individual solicitations, sourced from a variety of digital and print sources.
Some websites that post government bids for construction in Southern California include:
Once a relevant bid has been found, vendors must pay close attention to the requirements detailed in the bid. Should they decide to bid on a contract, vendors must be certain that they will be able to meet all the requirements of the bid at the price they’ve submitted to the buyer. Once the bid is won, the winning vendor will be under contract to deliver the goods and services at the price they submitted to the contracting government agency.
Partnering to Find Bids
To help find and track relevant bids, many vendors choose to work with a bid intelligence company. These companies do the hard work of searching for bids from hundreds of thousands of sources where government contracts are published, including newspapers and websites, on a daily basis.
For vendors, the value of bid intelligence companies lies in their ability to identify the opportunities that are right for a particular business, and to send those opportunities to vendors on a daily basis. By leveraging the expertise of a bid intelligence company dedicated to finding, sorting and analyzing government bids, vendors can gain access to targeted opportunities from all levels of government in one convenient location.
Kevin McClintock | BidNet.com