Late one night last year, a Kentucky specialty contractor bidding a $2-million guardrail job in Georgia learned that one of its suppliers had dropped a key price. The bids were scheduled to be opened in just a few hours in Atlanta, and the contractor had to act fast. The company president didn't sweat it. He went on the Internet, recalled his bid, changed it and won the work.
The Ruth Co., Lexington, was an early user of the country's firstand so far onlyInternet-based bid submission system implemented by a state department of transportation. But Georgia's pioneer status won't last long. DOT officials in Iowa expect to launch a similar system in April, and South Carolina plans to start taking online submissions this summer. Systems in Virginia and Indiana should be up by the end of the year and many other states have plans in the works or tests under way. But everywhere, caution is the byword.