[shakman]

Originally Posted by RFPCME

Shakman:

In all my 25-plus years of bidding contracts to the Federal government, there is one rule--you take the decision schedule and add months to it. This is especially true with a $1.5B construction project in today's economy. There are so few large, public construction projects going on, which is exactly the opposite of what the economy needs in my opinion, that each bidding contractor will scrutinize the selection process if they don't win, hoping to find grounds that they can base a protest of the decision on. So the Feds are being very careful. My guess is that the Feds are trying to find as many ways as possible to divvy up the project to as many contractors as they can, so the Government can avoid protests to its decision. That's usually the way it works. If the decision gets protested, it will drag on and on. The Air Force new tanker program is a classic example.

I have done plenty of Federal bids and construction as well. Sometimes Feds do as they announce, but I do agree with you on this one. I was always under the impression that this project would be divided among contractors considering the fact that this project has many components. I would like to see as many local contractors as possible involved with this one.