Build three public-work deadlines into your bid schedule: the start window, labor paperwork timing, and the claim cutoff.
Key takeaways
- Confirm which event starts each clock.
- Check whether a SWPPP changes the start window.
- Allow for variable wage determination timing.
- Confirm the claim window before counting its end date.
Many estimators treat those as separate jobs, and that gap is where money leaks out. On California Department of Transportation projects, notice of contract approval starts a countdown to beginning work. A wage determination can slow your paperwork. And the claim window after the work ends decides how long your money stays held back. If any of those dates lands in your schedule by accident, your bid carries a gap you did not price.
This post covers three deadlines to build into the bid schedule and the price: the start date, the labor paperwork, and the claim cutoff. Treat every rule below as an example from one owner or one jurisdiction. The dates in your own bid documents control. Use these examples as the questions to ask before you finalize the number.
Why deadlines belong in the price
A schedule is a promise, and a price is what it costs to keep that promise. When an owner requires you to start within a fixed number of days, the cost of mobilizing early, carrying crews and equipment, and keeping bonds and insurance in force becomes part of your number. When an owner holds back part of your payment until claims are resolved, the cost of waiting for that money belongs in your estimate too, whether or not your bid form has a line for it.
Start by reading the contract for three things: the event that starts each clock, the event that stops it, and what happens to money in between. Write those three answers down before you open the spreadsheet. Then turn each one into a task with a date, not a footnote. A deadline you have not scheduled can become a deadline you miss, so allow time to check it before submitting the bid.
Deadline one: the start date
The California Department of Transportation's construction manual shows how much detail can sit behind that one event. For a project without Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) requirements, the manual says the contractor must begin work within 15 calendar days after receiving notice of contract approval ( Caltrans construction manual). For projects that require a SWPPP, the same page says the contractor is to begin work within 55 calendar days after that notice ( Caltrans construction manual).
Those two numbers come from one state's manual and one set of specifications. What they show is that the same event can start a short clock or a long one, depending on what the project includes. Before you write a start date into the schedule, find out whether the bid documents call for a SWPPP, and confirm which of the two windows applies.
Be careful not to mix up these dates. The Caltrans manual warns against confusing the beginning of work with the beginning of contract time. The beginning of contract time follows the standard specifications' section on time, and the manual also points to a separate date on a weekly working-days form. Three dates, three purposes. Put each one in its own labeled cell in your schedule so the people reading it do not each pick a different date.
Before the start date, plan for the preconstruction conference. The manual says to be prepared to discuss with the contractor the items in Section 8-1.03, "Preconstruction Conference," of the Standard Specifications ( Caltrans construction manual). Put the conference on the schedule as its own task, ahead of mobilization. Ask the owner when it will be held, who will attend, and what they expect you to bring. If the conference falls late in your start window, check whether your crew, subcontractors, and submittals need to be arranged earlier.
Build in some slack for the notice itself. Assume notice can arrive at the late end of your planning range, and have the first crew, the first purchase orders, and the insurance certificates ready to move on short notice. Carry the cost of that readiness into the price, because a crew that waits for paperwork is still on your payroll.
Also ask the owner how notice is delivered. Find out whether it arrives in writing, to whom, and at what address or email, because a notice that sits in the wrong inbox can hide a start date until it is late. Record the date you actually receive it, and keep the transmittal with the project file.
Deadline two: labor paperwork
Public work often carries rules about labor that you cannot price without the right paperwork. On federal projects, the Federal Acquisition Regulation covers how project wage determinations are requested. It says the time the Department of Labor needs to process those requests varies according to the facts and circumstances in each case ( FAR 22.404-3). That sentence matters for your schedule, because it means there is no fixed turnaround you can count on. Someone may tell you "about two weeks." Treat that as a planning estimate, not a guaranteed turnaround.
Start with the bid documents. Check whether a wage determination is already included, and when it was issued. If the scope has changed since then, ask whether the determination still fits. If the project needs a determination and none is in the documents, ask the owner in writing how the request is made, who makes it, and what timing they have seen. Treat the answer as a range. Put the late end of that range on your critical path, and make your hiring and subcontract dates follow from it.
Not every public job is federal. State and local owners may have their own labor-rate rules and their own request steps. Do not assume the federal process applies to your job. Check the bid documents first. Use the public bid labor checks alongside that review.
Then price the risk. A delay in the labor paperwork can push your crew start back, and a crew that is paid to wait is a real cost. Decide whether your bid carries a contingency for that delay, and write the assumption into your estimate notes so the person approving the bid can see it. Do not promise the owner a date you cannot control. If you cannot control the date, say what you are waiting on and when you need it.
Scope changes can make the paperwork stale. If the owner adds work, changes the site, or changes the trades involved, the determination you planned around may no longer fit. Ask for the change in writing and get the owner's answer before you rely on it. A question asked before you hire is far cheaper than a change found after the crew is on the payroll.
Deadline three: the claim cutoff
The last clock is the one estimators forget, because it runs after the work is done. Retainage is money the owner holds back from your payments. In Washington, the legislature also recognizes that retainage is currently used to ensure that claims against the contractor are resolved in a timely manner ( RCW 60.28.011). That is the stated purpose of the hold, and it shapes everything that follows.
The same statute sets the window for those claims. Claims against the retained funds after the forty-five day period are not valid ( RCW 60.28.011). The same section adds that the public body must give public notice of this acceptance ( RCW 60.28.011). Track the public notice of acceptance, but confirm the period's starting event before calculating the claim cutoff.
Check the statute for when the forty-five-day period begins, and whether it covers your project, before you write its end date into the schedule. The contract may add its own notice steps. Other owners and other states use different holds, periods, and notice rules.
Subcontractors and suppliers have their own paperwork, and their late claims can reach you. Send them the acceptance and claim dates in writing, so they can plan their own records against the same window.
Retainage also ties up money you have already earned. Your cash flow can stretch well past the last day of work, so add the cost of financing that money, or of the credit line you use to cover it, to the estimate. The bid form may not ask for it, but your business will feel it. Review retainage caps separately from the claim cutoff.
Common mistakes to avoid
The second error is building the schedule from the start date you hope for, rather than the window the documents give. Start from the window, then ask what happens if notice arrives at the far end of it. An optimistic start date that nobody tests is a good way for a bid schedule to fall apart in its first month.
The third error is treating the labor paperwork as a formality. If the wage determination is still in process when your crew needs to be hired, your schedule has a hole, and your price probably assumed that crew was already available. Name that dependency in the schedule, so the gap shows up on paper instead of on the job site.
The fourth error is forgetting that the claim clock runs after the work ends. Estimators close out the job, hand the file to accounting, and move on, while the claim window keeps running. Put the acceptance date and the claim-window end date on a calendar that both the project manager and the accounting lead can see.
The fifth error is treating the close-out as a short task at the end of the schedule. Closing out a public job often includes the acceptance steps, the claim window, and the release of held-back money. Each of those needs its own line in the schedule, with its own date, or it will not get watched.
Plan the first weeks, not just the first day
Once the start date is set, plan the first weeks around the documents rather than around a single day. Make a short list of what must be in hand before anyone works on site. That list usually includes insurance certificates, bonds, the submittals the owner has asked for, the names of your subcontractors and suppliers, the labor paperwork, and the stormwater plan if the project needs one. For each item, write the date it is due and the person responsible for it.
Use the preconstruction conference as a checkpoint, not a formality. The questions the owner asks there show you what they care about most. Adjust the schedule before the clock is running, and write down any answer that changes a date. A conference you walk into unprepared is a conference that costs you time later.
Build the three dates into the schedule
Put all three in one schedule so you can check them against each other.
For each row, name the person who owns the date and the document that proves it. A date with no owner tends to drift, and a date with no source is hard to defend when the owner asks where it came from. Update the table every time you get a written answer from the owner, a contract revision, or a revised schedule.
Review the three clocks at three points: before bid, at the start, and at acceptance. Before bid, confirm each date and its source. At the start, confirm the notice date and the conference date against the schedule. At acceptance, confirm the claim-window dates and the subcontractor claim dates.
Illustrative example: price waiting time
For an illustrative estimate, assume a crew costs 500 a day and waits 3 days for paperwork. These are illustrative assumptions; replace them with your own costs and timing.
Price the risk, not just the dates
Once the dates are in, ask what a miss costs. For the start clock, the cost may be idle crews, bond and insurance costs that run longer than planned, and extended general conditions. For the labor paperwork, it may be waiting hours, rehiring, or subcontract prices that change. For the claim cutoff, it may be money held longer than planned and claims you cannot recover once the window closes.
Put a number on each one in your estimate notes, even a rough one. Then decide which costs belong in the base price, which belong in a contingency line, and which are questions to send the owner before bid day. A rough number you can explain is more useful than a precise number you cannot.
Ask questions early and in writing. Check the bid documents for how and when questions must be submitted. If a document is unclear about when a clock starts, the question is worth the wait. If the answer changes the schedule, it changes the price. Keep each question and the owner's answer in the bid file, so the number you submit can be traced back to the document that supports it.
Put it together
Today, open your bid documents and record each clock's starting event, deadline, and responsible person. Send the owner any unresolved timing questions before finalizing your price.
Related guides: Public job bid packages: 4 rules for splitting work · Best value bid review: 6 checks before pricing work · Carry wage changes in a public bid: 5 steps to check.
Questions to send before bid day
Send these questions before the bid deadline, and adapt them to the documents in front of you.
Which event starts the time count, and is it the notice of contract approval?
Use the event specified for that particular clock. Keep the work-start trigger separate from the beginning of contract time.
How long is the start window, and does the project need a SWPPP or other plan that changes it?
Use the window that applies to the project's requirements. Confirm those requirements before committing crews.
When is the preconstruction conference, and what should we bring?
Ask the owner to confirm the date, attendees, and required documents. Add preparation time to your schedule.
Is a wage determination included? If not, how is one requested, and what timing have you seen?
Check the bid documents, then ask the owner about any missing determination. Record who handles the request.
How is the acceptance notice given, and when does the claim window start and end?
Confirm the applicable notice process and starting event before calculating the end date.
Are retained funds held, and when are they released?
Check the contract's retainage and release terms. Track release separately from the claim cutoff.
General information, not legal or tax advice.