New Service Notifies Firms of Pending Contracts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 24, 2001
Contact: Terry Levin
(312) 744-9277

Construction firms or other businesses interested in becoming sub-contractors on municipal projects now can be notified by e-mail of all upcoming opportunities on work coordinated by the Public Building Commission of Chicago.

E-mail messages will be sent to any company registering for this service whenever a new PBC contract is being offered to bid, according to Mayor Richard M. Daley, who chairs the PBC.

The messages will include information about the project and the time and location of any pre-bid meetings.

Until now, such information was posted on the PBC's web site and advertised in newspapers; both methods required firms interested in becoming sub-contractors to actively search for these notices.

"Under this new program, anyone with an e-mail address can have these notices sent as direct messages," Daley explained. "It is a way to ensure that all potential sub-contractors get this information and have it in time to act on it."

The PBC constructs public facilities for the City of Chicago and other local government agencies, including police and fire stations, schools, libraries and parks. In most cases, bidders on these contracts will be larger firms that have demonstrated their qualifications to handle projects of that size and complexity.

But the companies vying for these contracts must put together bids that include a large amount of work to be sub-contracted-including firms certified as minority owned and women-owned if needed to meet the PBC's fairness requirements, according to executive director Eileen Carey.

"We hope smaller firms that want to work as sub-contractors on these projects will benefit from knowing when these opportunities occur, so they can attend the pre-bid meetings and offer their qualifications to the potential general contractors," Carey said. "This could be particularly useful as the companies preparing their bids are trying to identify sub-contractors to meet our requirements for participation by minorities and women."

To register for these e-mail messages, go to the PBC's web site at www.pbcchicago.com and click on the words, "Sign Up for PBC Alerts," which are on the left side of the screen.

This notification service is just the latest effort by the PBC to provide important information to computer users over the Internet.

Other features of the PBC's web site that are useful to companies seeking leads on public construction projects include:

• news and information about current projects, with architect and general contractor assignments.
  
• a listing of all general contractors that have picked up the bid documents and/or attended the pre-bid meeting for a pending contract.
  
• a list of all contracts awarded by the PBC, with their commitments to use minority-owned and woman-owned businesses.
  
• names, contact information and ownership data for all general contractors, owner's representatives, construction managers and trade contractors that are pre-qualified to bid on PBC contracts.
  
• bid tabulations for all general contracts awarded by the PBC.
  
• listings of all official actions taken by the PBC board of commissioners.