FDOT sells its construction work at monthly lettings — scheduled bid openings where that month's projects (resurfacing, bridges, signals, lighting, sitework) open together. The calendar publishes months ahead with project lists, estimates and plans, making FDOT the most PREDICTABLE buyer in Florida construction: you can see next quarter's work today.
Bidding FDOT work above the statutory threshold as a prime requires prequalification: an annual application with audited financials that assigns your ability rating and capacity. It's real paperwork filed well before bid day — but it's the gate to a market with deep budgets and mechanical payment reliability. Subcontracting under prequalified primes is the classic on-ramp while your own prequal matures: signals, lighting, MOT, trucking and specialty items flow to subs on nearly every job.
Plans and proposals publish with the letting notice; bids submit electronically through FDOT's bidding system by the letting date; openings are public and tabulations post fast. Unit-price schedules rule — your bid is a priced quantity book — and the estimate, quantities and site visit tell you fit within an hour of reading.
Most lettings carry Disadvantaged Business Enterprise participation goals — primes must commit certified DBE percentages, which makes DBE certification a genuine door-opener for qualifying subs. Federal-aid projects carry Davis-Bacon wages; state projects follow their own rules — the proposal states which, and your labor pricing must too.
Here's the part many site contractors miss: counties and cities let their OWN road programs — resurfacing, drainage, sidewalks, signals — usually WITHOUT FDOT prequalification, on ordinary local portals with ordinary bonding. Same asphalt, same crews, lighter gate (our paving contracts guide maps that tier). Watching both tiers is how paving books stay full.
FDOT's calendar is one source; the local road tier scatters across dozens more. Daily Bid Alert reads them all nightly and delivers the road and sitework solicitations matched to your counties at 7am — letting dates, estimates, pre-bid requirements, direct links. The full posting map lives at Florida government bids.
Stop checking forty portals. Every Florida bid in your trade, read overnight, in your inbox at 7am.
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