Come to think of it, they may not be that sophisticated as to have a Notice to Proceed. Normally contract clocks don't start to run until the notice to proceed has been sent. If you do anything beforehand, it's entirely "at risk," which means the owner can repudiate any part of it and not ...

Any idea on when ASC will get the Notice to Proceed?

I'm a little surprised that the "salvage" is up in the air. In civil construction, the contractor gets the salvage and can profit or lose by it. For example, we had a project where we had to take out these huge rotary AC/DC converters. They belonged to us after we removed them. We saw all ...

I like their ad because they come across as being honest and they're not overselling the unit or its capabilities.

What's so ominous? They have a date and time set for announcing their decision. That's much more usual than no date and time. The bids I'm familiar with say something like "bids will be opened and read aloud at 11:00 am on May 4, 2010,...' Bids are supposed to be Responsive Whatever specs there...

Maybe ASC should buy a lightbar and siren company like PSE.

The county probably didn't do the right (or any) training for their system. When something like this happens, IMO the fault is usually not the operators, but the training they received.

As to the funding issue, how long would ASC be willing to hold that price pending the county getting more funds? It obviously can't be open-ended, but ASC has shown aggressiveness already. Isn't the county smart enough to write a phased contract? You may have corruption here, but you also have incom...

Politics in an inevitable part of the process and it's totally unrealistic not to acknowledge it. Politicians hear pleas based on "People's lives are at stake" every week for issues as diverse as siren systems to school buses. Make it possible for the county commissioners to do the right t...

I'd love to know more about Fort Detrick, because it's home to USAMRIID (United States Army Research Institute for Infectious Diseases) and God knows how many Level 4 agents they've got in there (smallpox, Ebola, Marburg, Lhassa fever, anthrax, and stuff they don't discuss). Do they have warning for...