The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT), in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Economic Recovery and Reinvestment (OERR), has created a contract opportunities calendar on the RIDOT website, www.dot.ri.gov . The calendar may also be viewed from a link on Governor’s OERR website at www.gov.ri.gov/recovery .
This calendar, which will constantly be updated, will list all (economic stimulus funded and otherwise) bid opportunities, pre-bid conferences, and bid openings for RIDOT. Economic stimulus projects, which have been certified by the Governor, will be denoted with an asterisk. RIDOT has approximately 50 projects on its stimulus list.
“With the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, we can now begin the process to invest in critical infrastructure projects and get people back to work,” said Governor Donald L. Carcieri. “The Department of Transportation has identified more than 50 shovel ready projects across Rhode Island for immediate action. The process is well under way, and this calendar will allow Rhode Islanders to track the progress of each project and add greater level of transparency to the process.”
A total of $137 million is on its way to RIDOT through President Obama’s national economic stimulus bill which was signed into law earlier this week. Fifty percent of these funds must be obligated within 120 days. This timeline starts 21 days after the bill’s signing making the deadline for this group of projects this July.
“RIDOT expects to have every dollar spent by the deadline and may even be entitled to more,” said Michael P. Lewis, RIDOT’s Director. “This could happen if other states can’t allocate all of their funds. Those unspent dollars will be redistributed to states ready to spend them and we will be in a position to spend more if we get more.”
RIDOT plans to advertise as many as eight to 10 projects a week. The calendar will alert contractors what is coming up and what the deadlines are. Users will also find descriptions of the projects along with detailed contract bidding information.
For a construction project to be on the stimulus list it must have all of its right-of-way completed, all of its permits in place, all of its planning, specifications and estimates done and be approved by Rhode Island’s Division of the Federal Highway Administration.
It is expected that all of Rhode Island’s transportation related economic stimulus funding will create 5,000 jobs of which 1,500 will be direct and 3,500 will be indirect.
Contacts: Dana Alexander Nolfe, RIDOT, 401-222-1362 x4450 Amy Kempe, Governor’s Office, 401-222-8290