Trending
The city of Williamsport is going out to bid Friday to receive contractors' offers to build the accessible ramp at City Hall on the West Fourth Street entrance.
Jon Sander, city engineer, has placed an advertisement in the Sun-Gazette and plans to hold a live bid meeting.
The ramp is a requirement of a settlement of a pending lawsuit in U.S. Middle District Court by advocates for the disabled.
Estimated costs for the construction of the ramp are between $100,000 to $500,000. The bids are done through PennBid, Sander said.
Since 2009, the PennBid Program has aligned buyers and sellers of goods and services, providing significant cost and time savings for public agencies, private companies, and their vendors, Sander said.
The work of the program includes all types of requests for proposals for construction projects, material purchases, and skilled craft and professional services, he said.
The city has been using PennBid system to advertise and bid projects out since fall of 2020.
"This system has been an amazing asset to us," Sander said.
It serves more than 1,200 municipalities, has more than 300 architecture and engineering firms using it to advertise and bid projects out, and has 28,000 registered bidders, he said.
It is a completely paperless bid management system. PennBid collects fees from the awarded bidder, and they are one-third of a percent of the awarded bid, he said.
The fees are capped at $5,000, Sander said.
The city also used the system for street bids and could use it on the future levee construction bids, he said.