States Enjoying Lower Bids for Construction Projects

"At Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport, a recent project to reconstruct the area around Piers C and D received six bids instead of the usual two or three. The result: The estimated $50 million project will be built for $8 million less than was budgeted, and the savings will be allocated to other projects. There were 21 bidders for a $200,000 drainage project in Carroll County, more than anyone could remember."

"'Our bottom line is more bidders and better prices,' said Maryland Transportation Secretary John Porcari. 'This we like.'"

"After years of rapidly escalating construction costs on highway and other projects due to skyrocketing prices of fuel, asphalt and steel, transportation departments are getting a break as the economy slows and construction firms that once built subdivisions and strip malls bid for government work."

"In Virginia, state officials are receiving bids from companies as far away as the Ohio Valley. Projects that typically would have drawn four or five bids are receiving 10, said Byron Coburn, state construction engineer."