With their posting of the Contractor Announcement (CA) “New Requirements for DBE Goal at Time of Bid” late last week, MDOT formally announced the implementation of the revised “DBE at Time of Bid” process, which will be effective for the January 10, 2020 bid letting and all bid lettings thereafter.
As explained in MITA’s, April 12, 2019, bulletin “MDOT to Implement a Revision to the “DBE at Time of Bid” Process”, this revision is the result of a clarification on the intent of the DBE regulations by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which requires that all bidders must submit their DBE participation documentation within 5 calendar days of the bid letting.
In May, a select subcommittee of MITA and MDOT representatives began work to develop a solution to this submittal requirement. The solution goal of the subcommittee was a process that would minimize the administrative burden on all bidders, the DBE community and MDOT staff, while still complying with the intent of the federal regulations and the MDOT bid documents.
The submittal solution developed by the select subcommittee received FHWA approval in late fall and is now being implemented in accordance with the MDOT CA.
Key documents cited in the CA for the implementation of the revised “DBE at Time of Bid” process are: the Frequently Used Special Provision (FUSP) 12SP-102E-06, and the new form, Form 2653 – CONTRACTOR DBE COMMITMENT.
FUSP 12SP-102E-06 modifies the past “DBE at Time of Bid” process in that it requires that all bidders submit the new Form 2653 within 5 calendar days of the bid letting.
The new Form 2653 replaces the previously used forms, Form 0178 – DBE Participation Summary (commonly known as the “Blue Sheet”), Form 0188A – Abbreviated Contractor Good Faith Effort Application, and Form 0188 – Contractor Good Faith Effort Application. The “sections” of required information on Form 2653 are very similar in look and content to the information required on the previously used Forms 0178, 0188A, and 0188. Forms 0178, 0188A, and 0188 will be removed from the MDOT forms repository in the near future.
In creating Form 2653, the subcommittee developed a simplified submittal for all bidders to use in a single form format that eliminates the entry of redundant and unnecessary information and data.
Form 2653 – CONTRACTOR DBE COMMITMENT includes detailed instructions outlining the submittal information requirements for each bidder based on their bid ranking (i.e. 1st low bidder, 2nd low bidder, 3rd low bidder, 4th low bidder, etc.). Attached to Form 2653 (as its last page) is a very useful “DBE Commitment Submittal” matrix that clearly identifies the submittal requirements and timeframes for each bidder based on their bid rank.
As a reminder, this revised “DBE at Time of Bid” process does not change the current requirement that all bidders must submit the overall DBE percentage they have attained at the time of bid in the DBE Goal folder of the Project Bids file.
If you have any questions, please contact Glenn Bukoski, VP of Engineering Services, at glennbukoski@thinkmita.org or by calling 517-347-8336.
