Availability of Bidding Documents

There are three major ways that public agencies use to make bidding documents available to the contracting community: hard copy, online, plan centers. Each has advantages and disadvantages and some options are more beneficial to contractors and others for subcontractors.

Hard Copy: Generally, prime or general contractors prefer obtaining a hard copy of the bidding documents so they can have in front of them all of the requirements for bidding the project.

Online: There are a variety of online services, some of which charge public agencies and others which charge the user, to access the bidding documents. One of the most popular is Builders Exchange which public agencies pay to post their documents. Builders Exchanges has a contract with the Office of State Procurement (OSP) that local public agencies can piggyback on if they are members of the cooperative with OSP. Online access to bidding documents is generally preferred by subcontractors since they only need to access certain portions of the specifications and drawings that are applicable to their portion of the work. Builders Exchange also has an online take-off estimating tool available. Other online services include www.PlanWell.com and www.PlanCenter.com.

Plan Centers: These are membership based organizations in which contractors and subcontractors pay to belong and to review bidding documents. Plan centers are valuable for both contractors and subcontractors to review hard copies of many projects to determine if they are interested in bidding the project. Plan centers in the Puget Sound area include the following: Valley Plan Center (Kent), McGraw-Hill Construction (Seattle, Tacoma), Builders Exchange (Everett), Contractor's Resource Center (Seattle).

I think it's important for public agencies to make their bidding documents available through all three methods (hard copy, online, and plan centers) in order to reach the broadest market and ensure competitive bids. While some agencies have moved toward just usining one method (typically gravitating toward online access), I think this is doesn't serve all of the contracting community well, and ultimately doesn't serve the public well.