Overview

The Tracy Gateway Project will be exploring an innovative risk management concept, the Surety Connection Project, being developed to improve the participation opportunities for local, small and emerging contractors on projects like this while providing improved risk management to project owners.

The concept relies on efficiently managing project information in collaboration with the surety industry so that they have better information for bidding purposes, more timely monitoring information on the progress of the bond project.

Not only does the concept increase efficiency, it also reduces transactions costs by utilizing electronic bonds generated by data processing methods that use open standards developed by the surety industry.

This pilot implementation will require some adjustments to the way the subcontract bids will be solicited and received, electronically over the internet instead of by paper, but the underlying processes and project management will remain traditional.

For subcontractors to bid the project they must be able to download the bid package information from this site, and import it into an application that has bid management functionality.  The bid bond will then be forwarded to your surety agent who will execute the bid bond, and ultimately the final bond electronically.  The surety that provides the bid and final bond must subscribe to Project Status Connection, which will provide ongoing monitoring of the progress of the project to the surety.

Subcontractor insurance will also be monitored electronically by the same firm, Surety 2000 that provides the electronic surety transaction.

While this may all seem futuristic, and difficult to comply with, it is not.  Under an arrangement with North Coast Surety Technology each interested contractor will be offered a subscription to Bid List Connection to handle the processing needs, and the subscription includes the subscription to Surety2000.  These subscriptions are not project specific and can be used for any project that the contractor may have.  Bid List Connection has a subscription charge of $20/month, and Surety2000 is $50/year, collected by Paypal.   The first 30days of Bid List Connection are free, so the only fixed expense is $50.  We have also secured the ability to have Bid List Connection fees waived if it is a hardship.

We believe these innovations will provide your surety agents and companies with a level of information and enhanced underwriting conditions that improve your access to surety credit.  We look forward to having you on our project.