A small Illinois municipal airport open to additional paving bidders, with two requirements, and a paving contractor that had just lost an airport project and wanted its next one.
01
We wrote to airports and to paving contractors at the same time. The contractor’s estimator replied that he is always looking for upcoming airport work. The airport replied that extra bids were fine, with two requirements: pre-clearance for the state’s aviation specifications, and experience on a runway over 7,000 feet.
02
We checked the contractor against both requirements before saying a word to the airport. Its largest runway project was well over 7,000 feet, and it was authorised for state aviation work.
03
The brief went to the contractor with the airport’s name withheld, the $8,600 fee and the invoice. When it was paid, the introduction went out on one thread with the requirements spelled out, and the contractor sent the airport the registration details its engineers needed. The airport paid nothing.
A contractor that has just lost an airport wants another one more than anything else, so we sold it exactly that. The fee was priced against the margin on a single airport contract, not against the effort.