The Way the Grand Forks Engineering Department Awards Bids Explained

(KNOX) -When it comes to the City of Grand Forks Engineering Department awarding bids for projects, the best and lowest cost are reviewed.

Grand Forks City Engineer Al Grasser said that they usually go with the company that has submitted the lowest bid.

“Technically we award the lowest and best bid, but you need to have pretty substantial documentation and past as to why a contractor would not be considered to do the work,” Grasser explained this week to the Grand Forks Committee of the Whole.

Committee member Tricia Lunski said that the best and lowest bid is unclear.

“That’s kind of confusing. If it’s just the lowest, the lowest makes it the best, then why do they have the best in there?” Lunski asked Grasser.

Lunski was told that there would have to be some justification as to why the lowest bid would not be taken. The lowest bid has to be taken as long as it meets all of the specifications of the project.

“There might have been one or two in my whole career where we felt that we weren’t going to try and give it to the low bid,” Grasser told Lunski.