How to win paving and line painting contracts in BC
Who buys paving, patching and line painting in BC, how MMCD-based tenders and unit prices work, and what wins municipal paving work.
Short answer
BC municipalities, regional districts, school districts and the Province tender paving, crack sealing, patching and line painting each year, mostly in spring for summer work. Many municipal tenders use MMCD standard documents and unit-price schedules. Price each item from quantities, crew rates and plant costs, and show equipment, traffic control, references and safety.
Paving work comes in all sizes. A city might tender a whole year's road resurfacing program, while a school district wants one parking lot repaved and its stalls repainted. Line painting and crack sealing are often yearly programs too, which suits smaller crews with the right equipment.
Who buys paving in BC?
- Municipalities, for road resurfacing, patching, sidewalks, parking lots and yearly line painting.
- Regional districts, for park roads, transfer stations and facility lots.
- School districts and health authorities, for parking lots and bus loops.
- The Province and federal buyers, for highways, ports, parks and bases. Highway maintenance in BC is mostly bundled into large regional contracts.
What does a paving tender look like?
Most municipal paving tenders in BC use the Master Municipal Construction Documents (MMCD): standard general conditions, specifications and drawings, with the buyer's own supplementary conditions. The heart of the tender is a schedule of quantities and prices: each item, an estimated quantity and your unit price.
Read for:
- Items and units, such as tonnes of asphalt, square metres of milling, metres of crack sealing, each stall or arrow.
- Specified materials and testing, such as mix types and compaction testing.
- Traffic management, which can be a big share of the cost on busy roads.
- Working windows, such as night work or school holidays.
How do I price paving work?
Unit prices are paid on measured quantities, so each one has to stand on its own. For each item, build up:
- Material, delivered, including waste.
- Crew and equipment time, at realistic production rates.
- Trucking and mobilization, spread across the items or priced on their own line if the schedule allows.
- Traffic control, signs and flaggers.
- Overhead and margin.
What wins paving contracts?
- The lowest compliant price on most construction-style tenders, so the bid form must be complete and correct.
- Equipment and plant access you can prove, with backups.
- A traffic management plan that keeps roads and lots usable.
- References for similar work, and a clean safety record.
- The right paperwork: WorkSafeBC registration and clearance, insurance, bonding on larger jobs.
When do paving tenders come out?
Paving needs warm, dry weather, so most tenders come out from late winter to early spring for work from May to October. Line painting programs often run in spring and again in late summer. Crack sealing is usually done in cooler months, so it may be tendered for fall.
Many municipalities tender their yearly program as soon as council approves the budget. Watch for early-season tenders, since they fill the summer schedule first.
What are common mistakes?
Leaving an item blank on the price schedule, pricing a different unit than the one asked, or forgetting traffic control on busy roads. Each can get a bid thrown out or cost you the margin.
Where to go next
See how to get bonded for bid bonds, and what being prime contractor means when you're the only contractor on site.
What to do next
Sources
Rules and forms change. Check the official page before you rely on a detail here.