Bidding ·
How to Invite a Civil Contractor to Bid: What We Need From Your RFP
A short checklist from the estimating side of the table — the documents and details that get you sharper, faster civil construction bids.
The quality of a bid starts with the quality of the invitation. When owners and project managers send complete information, they get tighter numbers, fewer exclusions, and fewer surprises after award. Here's what makes the difference on a civil scope.
The essentials
Drawings and specifications — even at issued-for-tender stage — matter most. For earthworks and utilities, a geotechnical report is worth more than any other single document: it tells us what the ground actually is, which is what civil pricing is actually about.
Beyond that: the site survey or existing-conditions plan, the project schedule and any hard milestone dates, permit status, and how you want the price broken out. If quantities are your risk or ours, say so — unit-rate and lump-sum bids are priced differently.
What happens when you send it to us
Send your RFP or invitation to bid through our website — you can upload documents directly in the chat on our home page or through the contact form — and it goes straight to our estimating team. We confirm receipt, ask our questions early, and give you a real answer on whether we'll bid, so you're never guessing about coverage.
Missing some of the list? Send it anyway. We bid work at every stage of documentation — we'd just rather tell you our assumptions than hide them.