Public construction work around Conshohocken is advertised in several places, and each owner uses its own system. Montgomery County posts its solicitations on Bonfire, an online bidding service. PennDOT lets its construction contracts through its Engineering and Construction Management System, called ECMS. State agencies post on PA eMarketplace. School districts, boroughs and townships each advertise their own projects. Registration is free on the county’s system, and PennDOT requires a business partner registration before you can bid.
Montgomery County
The county’s Office of Procurement buys under the Second Class County Code and the Montgomery County Procurement Code. In most cases, the office says, any purchase over $24,500 has to be publicly advertised and competitively bid unless an exception applies. The office also manages the county’s construction purchases.
The county uses Bonfire, run by Euna Solutions, for its solicitations. Anyone can view current solicitations and construction determinations on the county’s Bonfire portal, but downloading documents and submitting a proposal requires a free account. When you register, pick every National Institute of Governmental Purchasing commodity code, a standard list of product and service categories, that fits your work. The county sends notices of new solicitations to vendors by those codes, and it asks vendors to select all the codes that cover what they could provide.
For help with an account, the county points vendors to Bonfire’s support team and the help center inside the portal.
PennDOT
PennDOT’s construction contracts, consultant agreements and project information run through ECMS. To submit bids, a firm registers as a PennDOT business partner. A construction contractor can register as a prime or subcontractor, as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise supplier, or as a service provider such as a hauler.
Registration has two parts, and PennDOT approves a business partner only when both are done:
- A paper Agreement to Authorize Electronic Access to PennDOT Systems, signed and emailed to the address on PennDOT’s registration page.
- An online registration form, reached through PennDOT’s business partner site with Microsoft Edge in Internet Explorer mode.
PennDOT says approval typically takes two weeks after it has both parts. Business partner registration does not replace prequalification or DBE certification, which have their own processes through PennDOT’s Prequalification Office. PennDOT’s page also links to the Commonwealth’s vendor registration site. PennDOT’s IT Service Desk handles ECMS questions at 717-783-8330 or 855-783-8330.
Highway and bridge projects that a municipality pays for entirely from local sources, such as its liquid fuels allocation, have a separate prevailing wage threshold of $100,000. See the prevailing wage guide.
State agencies
PA eMarketplace is the Commonwealth’s portal for bids, awards and other contract information. It lists open solicitations, bid tabulations, awards, contracts, sole source and emergency procurements, upcoming procurements and the state’s debarment list.
COSTARS
COSTARS is the state’s cooperative purchasing program, run by the Department of General Services. It lets local governments, schools, libraries and certain nonprofits buy supplies and services through contracts the state manages, without running their own bid. A supplier gets onto a COSTARS contract by registering in the PA Supplier Portal, getting a six-digit vendor number and responding to the program’s contract solicitations. The program’s line is 1-866-768-7827.
A township or school district may buy from a COSTARS contract instead of advertising a job itself. A supplier holding a COSTARS contract can sell to those members without a separate bid for each one.
School districts and municipalities
Colonial School District posts its requests for proposals on its finance department page. The page says the district issues requests for proposals for contracted services each year and advertises current ones there. Where the district advertises construction bids could not be verified from that page, so ask its business office.
Boroughs and townships advertise their own public works and building projects. Check the bid or news pages of Conshohocken, West Conshohocken, Plymouth and Whitemarsh, and the agendas of their councils.
Before you bid public work
- Register on each system you plan to use well before a bid is due. PennDOT’s approval alone takes about two weeks.
- Check the bid documents for prevailing wage rates. Pennsylvania’s Prevailing Wage Act covers public construction projects with an estimated total cost over $25,000, according to the Department of Labor and Industry.
- Look up the debarment lists on PA eMarketplace and on Labor and Industry’s prevailing wage pages for any subcontractor you plan to carry.
Bid and procurement rules differ by owner. For a question about a particular solicitation, ask the contact named in it.