How to Select a Municipality Paving Contractor
How to Select a Municipality Paving Contractor
Municipalities face unique challenges when they need to have asphalt pavement installed or repaired. A major project can disrupt traffic, so residents need to be notified in advance. Budgets are often tight so that multiple bids will be required. Time constraints may enter into the equation so that work can be completed before the new school year starts, for example, or before the tourist season begins. Municipal leaders are also conscious of the need to use taxpayer money wisely by ensuring that every expenditure provides the best value possible. To avoid inferior work, cost overruns or project delays, municipalities need to hire the right asphalt paving company. However, it is not always easy to identify the best asphalt paving company for your municipal project.
How to Select a Municipality Paving Contractor
How Can Municipal Leaders Find the Right Asphalt Paving Contractor?
You can begin your selection process by asking for recommendations from your counterparts in other municipalities, searching for local companies online or jotting down the names of companies working on large projects for private companies. This should allow you to compile a list of potential contractors. Once you have made your list, you are ready to start eliminating asphalt paving contractors who do not meet your criteria.
• Check the company’s Better Business Bureau rating. If the company has numerous unresolved complaints, you might want to strike its name from your list.
• Make sure that the company has a physical address and a working telephone number. Transient contractors often have neither, so tracking them down if they deliver shoddy work can be difficult or impossible.
• Search for the company online. If the company has a website, visit it and review any testimonials. If the company name is mentioned in online forums or social media, see what people are saying about their experiences with the contractor.
After you have eliminated the companies that seem questionable, you are ready to solicit bids from the best remaining candidates and interview the contractors.
• When you speak with the asphalt contractors, ask them to describe their experience with projects of a similar nature and a similar scope. If your project is a large one that will take days or weeks to complete, you want to choose a someone with the ability to finish a large project on schedule and within budget.
• Other questions can help you determine the contractor’s fit for the project. For example, does the company own its equipment? Can the contractor provide proof of workers’ compensation, liability, and vehicle insurance? Does the contractor have sufficient staffing for your project? How much experience does the contractor’s crew have? Does the contractor offer a warranty on his work?
• When the bids arrive, resist the urge to choose the company submitting the lowest bid. Compare bids to make sure that each contractor is quoting for work of the same scope and with materials of equivalent quality. For example, if you are installing new pavement, verify that each contractor is basing his quote on pavement of the same depth and square footage.
• Before you sign a contract, ask the contractor a few more questions. How does he plan to control traffic to ensure the safety of his workers as well as the safety of the public? What is his contingency plan if the schedule is endangered by a weather event, equipment failure or the asphalt plant’s inability to deliver material for an extended period? What does the contractor need you to do to help ensure the success of the project?
Selecting a paving company for your asphalt repair or installation project can involve a bit of work on your part. However, these tips can help you navigate the process so that you can be sure that the results will meet your needs. When you are ready to launch your search, we hope that Dirtworks will be one of the companies that you consider. Dirtworks is an outstanding asphalt contractor serving Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts. We offer a full range of asphalt paving and repair services as well as site work, dirt road repair, excavations, snow removal, parking lot striping, and sealcoating. Our customers include various municipalities, universities and schools, hotels, hospitals and health care facilities, religious institutions, subdivisions, and office buildings. We are known for delivering exceptional work at reasonable prices. For a free estimate, call 508-240-5541 or complete the online request form.
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