Schwehr Projects · Services · 03 · Tenders
Help getting a complete, compliant submission out the door when the deadline is close: bid document review, a compliance matrix, proposal writing to the owner’s evaluation criteria, subcontractor quote levelling and the final package check. For negotiated work, the lump-sum proposal itself. Fixed fee per tender, from Edmonton for contractors across Alberta and BC.
What is covered
A read of the instructions, general conditions, supplementary conditions and specification with the risk items pulled out: liquidated damages, bonding and insurance limits, milestone dates, unusual payment terms, owner-supplied materials, and anything that should be priced or qualified.
Every mandatory requirement, form, signature, bond, certificate and page limit on one sheet with an owner, a status and the page it appears on in your submission. The last thing checked before the envelope closes.
Technical narrative, construction methodology, schedule narrative, safety and quality write-ups, key personnel and past-project sheets, written to the owner’s evaluation criteria and scored against them before submission.
The bid form populated from the estimate, extended and footed, with the arithmetic checked twice. Appendices, alternative prices and separate prices in the format requested.
Subcontractor and supplier quotes compared line by line for scope, exclusions, taxes and terms, so the number you carry is the complete one, with a note of what to confirm before award.
An addenda log with what each one changed in the quantities, the forms and the price. Questions to the owner drafted during the review period rather than discovered on closing day.
What you get
The compliance matrix is built on day one from the instructions to bidders and grows as addenda arrive. On closing day it is the checklist: every row green, or the package does not go.
Most lost tenders are lost on form, not price: a missing signature, an outdated bond form, an addendum not acknowledged. The matrix exists to make those failures impossible to miss.
| Ref | Requirement | Source | Owner | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ITB 4.2 | Bid bond, 10% of bid price, on owner’s form | Appendix C | Broker | Received, signed |
| ITB 4.5 | Consent of surety for performance and L&M bonds, 50% each | Appendix D | Broker | Pending |
| ITB 6.1 | Acknowledge addenda 1 to 3 on bid form | Addenda log | Estimator | Done |
| ITB 7.3 | COR or SECOR certificate, current | Attachment 2 | Safety | Attached |
| ITB 9.0 | Two signed copies, sealed envelope, 14:00 local | Cover | Admin | Open |
Private and negotiated work
A developer or an owner asking for a price on a servicing job, a site, a haul road or a pit does not send a tender package. They send drawings and expect a document back that they can sign. That document has to describe the scope precisely enough that the lump sum survives the first surprise, and it is usually written in a week by someone who also has to price it.
The proposal goes out under your name and letterhead, with a one-line credit for the takeoff if you want it, or none.
Timeline
The full service: document review, questions to the owner before the deadline for questions, takeoff and estimate, proposal writing with a draft for your comment, quote levelling and the final package.
Review and compliance matrix on day one, estimate in parallel with your own pricing, proposal sections written from your existing material, final check the day before closing.
Compliance matrix, bid form arithmetic, addenda check and a final package review. Not enough time for a new estimate, but enough to stop a good price being rejected on form.
Clarification responses, best-and-final-offer pricing, and a debrief sheet recording what the owner scored and why, so the next submission to that owner starts ahead.
Owners and portals
Municipal road, utility and site tenders; Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors and BC Ministry of Transportation and Transit contracts; utilities, pipelines, resource companies and First Nations development corporations; and private developers tendering subdivision servicing and site grading. Submissions through Alberta Purchasing Connection, BC Bid, Bonfire, Biddingo and MERX, or by hand in a sealed envelope.
Bonding and insurance stay with your broker. The service makes sure the right forms are requested early and arrive in the format the owner specified.
Questions
Yes, from your past-project information, resumes and safety program. You review a draft and the final. For a price-only tender there is no proposal to write and the fee covers the review, matrix, forms and final check.
No, your surety broker does. I identify what bonds and consents the tender needs on day one and chase them so they are not the thing holding up the package on closing day.
Often most useful then. Your estimator prices; this service owns the document, the forms and the submission so the estimator is not doing compliance at eleven at night.
Yes, quoted from the tender documents and the time remaining. A review-only engagement inside 48 hours is billed hourly with a stated cap.
Only me. Pricing, quotes and proposal content are covered by the confidentiality terms in the master agreement, and nothing from one contractor’s submission is reused for another.
Where I work
Drawings, specs and workbooks travel well, so most work is done remotely for contractors in Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Lloydminster and Lethbridge, and across the BC Interior including Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George and the Peace region. Site visits are arranged when a job calls for one, for example a pre-bid walk-through, a pit survey or a start-up week with the site team.
Schwehr Projects Ltd. is an Alberta corporation. Work in BC is done under the same agreement, with BC MoTI Blue Book and HETS equipment rates applied where the owner requires them.
Next step
Send the invitation documents and the close date. You will have a fee and a plan for the days remaining back within one business day, sooner if the deadline is inside 48 hours.