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Start with the solicitation, plans, and governing requirements
The bid package is the controlling checklist. Do not substitute a generic contractor questionnaire for the project’s drawings, specifications, contract provisions, addenda, phasing requirements, and owner procurement rules.
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Confirm the applicable airport standards
For U.S. federally funded airport construction, the Federal Aviation Administration’s airport construction standards page identifies AC 150/5370-10 and related general contract provisions, including the Contractor Quality Control Program standard. Check the exact edition, supplements, and project amendments named in the solicitation. A contractor that cites an obsolete edition or cannot explain how it will follow the project’s amended requirements has not demonstrated readiness.
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AC 150/5370-2G, issued December 13, 2017, is identified as active FAA guidance for operational safety during airport construction. It is especially relevant to airside work, but it does not replace state and local law, airport rules, or the contract itself. Funding source, airport certification status, owner policy, and jurisdiction can change which provisions apply.
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Build a project-specific compliance matrix
Before opening bids, list every requirement that must be demonstrated and identify the evidence that will satisfy it. Include:
- Required airport and construction experience.
- Key personnel, availability commitments, and licensing.
- CSPP obligations, work windows, closures, access routes, markings, lighting, and barricades.
- Contractor Quality Control Program requirements and testing procedures.
- Milestones, partial openings, beneficial occupancy, and turnover dates.
- Insurance, bonds, financial responsibility submissions, security badging, and labor requirements.
- Subcontractor disclosures, approvals, and specialized trade qualifications.
Use the same published criteria and weights for every bidder. Do not create an undisclosed scoring system after proposals arrive.
Verify directly relevant airport experience
Years in general construction do not establish capability for airport work. Examine whether the bidder has completed projects with a similar operational environment, technical scope, phasing complexity, and stakeholder profile.
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Separate airside experience from landside experience
Ask bidders to identify which submitted projects involved active runways, taxiways, aprons, navigational aids, airfield lighting, markings, or other controlled airside areas. Terminal buildings, parking structures, roadways, utilities, and other landside work can demonstrate useful construction ability but may not prove airfield safety competence. Require a clear description of the bidder’s own scope rather than accepting a project name alone.
Check the delivery record with owners
Contact references who directly managed comparable airport projects. Ask about schedule adherence, quality deficiencies, change management, closeout documentation, safety performance, and the contractor’s response when work disrupted operations. Confirm whether the listed project was completed by the same corporate entity and whether the proposed project manager and superintendent were involved.
Verify the actual proposed team
Request resumes and written availability commitments for the project manager, superintendent, safety lead, quality-control lead, and critical trade supervisors. A strong corporate history is less persuasive if the people who delivered it are unavailable. Identify which specialized work packages will be self-performed and which depend on subcontractors. Require the bidder to name those subcontractors and explain their airport experience.
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| Evidence to request | What to verify |
|---|---|
| Comparable project list | Airport type, airside or landside scope, operating conditions, contract value and dates, and the bidder’s actual role. |
| Owner references | Schedule performance, safety record, quality issues, changes, disruption management, and closeout. |
| Key-personnel resumes | Relevant duties, certifications or licenses where required, and confirmed availability for this project. |
| Subcontractor schedule | Named firms, specialized capabilities, airport experience, and supervision arrangements. |
Test safety, phasing, and operational continuity
Airport operational safety is a core capability check, not a general statement of intent. Compare the bidder’s plan with the approved Construction Safety and Phasing Plan and the phasing shown in the contract documents.
Require a phase-by-phase implementation plan
Ask the bidder to identify, for each phase, the work area, aircraft and vehicle routes, closures, access points, work windows, temporary markings and signs, barricades, lighting, escort requirements, and dependencies on airport operations. The proposed sequence must align with contract milestones and any dates for partial opening or beneficial occupancy.
FAA AC 150/5370-10H explains that required phasing should be specified in the contract and shown on the approved CSPP and project plans. Ask the bidder to identify any conflict between its means and methods and those documents before award, not after mobilization.
Require a Safety Plan Compliance Document
FAA AC 150/5370-2G says the airport operator should require, review, and approve a contractor Safety Plan Compliance Document (SPCD). The SPCD explains how the contractor will comply with the approved CSPP and supplies details that could not be determined before award. Make the submission deadline, review process, revision cycle, and approval authority explicit in the contract.
Evaluate whether the SPCD assigns responsible people and provides actionable controls. Look for inspection frequencies, radio and communication procedures, foreign-object-debris prevention, vehicle and equipment control, emergency contacts, escort arrangements, and procedures for changing work areas. A generic corporate safety manual is not a substitute for a project-specific SPCD.
Assess coordination discipline
Ask how the contractor will coordinate with the airport operator, tenants, users, engineer, testing personnel, and relevant FAA representatives where applicable. Require a process for distributing notices, obtaining approvals, reporting incidents, and escalating an unplanned closure or unsafe condition. Ask for examples of prior operational disruptions and the actions taken to restore safe operations.
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Examine quality control and owner oversight
Quality responsibilities must be divided before work starts. The contractor’s quality control system and the owner’s quality assurance and acceptance functions are related but not interchangeable.
Review the Contractor Quality Control Program
Compare the bidder’s proposed program with the project specification. It should identify quality-control staff, inspection points, submittal reviews, testing coordination, documentation, nonconformance handling, corrective action, and release of completed work. Request representative quality records from a comparable airport project, such as inspection reports, test logs, deficiency notices, and closeout evidence, with confidential information removed.
Define authority and independence
FAA AC 150/5370-12B places project engineering, construction supervision, inspection, and acceptability testing responsibilities on the sponsor. It recommends retaining a consulting firm when sponsor staff lack the necessary expertise. The contract should state who may accept work, interpret requirements, approve substitutions, direct corrective action, stop nonconforming work, and document changes.
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Check schedule realism, resources, and subcontractor control
Request a resource-loaded schedule
Require a schedule tied to airport operating constraints, submittal reviews, procurement lead times, work windows, testing, commissioning, and turnover. A bar chart without labor, equipment, and production assumptions is not enough to establish feasibility. Ask the bidder to identify the critical path and the activities that depend on airport approvals or restricted access.
Verify equipment and facilities
Confirm that the bidder owns, leases, or has a credible plan to obtain the equipment, temporary facilities, communications systems, and specialized resources required by the project. Check mobilization timing and maintenance support. Federal responsibility criteria identify organization, operational controls, technical capability, safety programs, and construction or technical equipment as relevant screening factors; use those factors as prompts while applying the procurement rules that govern your airport.
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Evaluate subcontractor integration
Identify critical subcontractors and suppliers before award. Review their airport experience, licenses, safety records where required, availability, and role in the schedule. Ask how the prime contractor will transmit the CSPP, SPCD obligations, quality procedures, reporting requirements, and security rules to every tier. Require approval of substitutions and a process for handling a subcontractor failure without losing a critical work window.
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Ask for a recovery strategy
Have the bidder explain how it would recover schedule if weather, access restrictions, procurement delays, testing failures, or operational conflicts interrupt planned work. Look for realistic alternatives, additional shifts or crews where permitted, resequencing options, and the approvals those changes would require. Do not reward an aggressive completion date that ignores airport constraints.
Verify insurance, bonds, licenses, security, and commercial compliance
Use the solicitation and applicable jurisdiction as the source of truth. Verify every required business license, insurance type and limit, performance and payment bond, financial-responsibility submission, airport access or badging requirement, safety training, labor compliance document, and subcontractor disclosure.
There is no universal insurance limit, bond percentage, or licensing checklist that applies to every airport project. Requirements vary by contract, funding, airport policy, state and local law, and risk allocation. Check certificates and bonds with the issuing carrier or surety when appropriate, confirm effective dates cover mobilization and the full contract period, and ensure named insureds and additional-insured language match the contract.
Security review should address who may enter controlled areas, how badging and escorts will be managed, background-check timing, vehicle permits, lost badges, and after-hours access. A bidder that treats security as a post-award administrative detail may create a mobilization delay.
Compare qualified bidders on published decision axes
Once minimum responsibility requirements are met, compare proposals using the solicitation’s stated criteria and weights. The following axes cover the material differences that commonly affect airport delivery:
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| Comparison axis | Questions for evaluators |
|---|---|
| Relevant experience | Has the bidder delivered the same type of airport work in a comparable operating environment? |
| Safety and CSPP/SPCD execution | Does the plan convert airport safety requirements into phase-specific controls and accountable personnel? |
| Proposed team and subcontractors | Are key people available, and are specialized partners named, qualified, and properly supervised? |
| Quality management | Does the Contractor Quality Control Program support inspections, testing, records, and timely correction? |
| Schedule and phasing | Does the resource-loaded schedule fit work windows, approvals, testing, and operational milestones? |
| Equipment and resources | Are required equipment, facilities, crews, and access arrangements available when needed? |
| Compliance and commercial terms | Are licenses, insurance, bonds, security submissions, and labor documents complete and verifiable? |
| Past performance | Do owner references confirm dependable safety, quality, communication, change management, and closeout? |
Document the basis for each score and record clarifications consistently. If a proposal depends on a future hire, unapproved subcontractor, or unconfirmed equipment source, treat that dependency as a stated condition rather than an assumed capability.
Hold a disciplined preconstruction meeting before notice to proceed
Do not treat the preconstruction meeting as ceremonial. FAA AC 150/5370-12B states: “A preconstruction conference is critical to allow the sponsor to thoroughly discuss contract matters, airport safety, construction phasing and sequencing, airport security, construction testing and other relevant project matters.” The meeting should convert the accepted proposal into agreed working procedures.
- Confirm contract scope, amendments, submittal register, change control, payment procedures, and communication channels.
- Review the approved CSPP, SPCD status, phase boundaries, work windows, closures, access routes, markings, barricades, lighting, and emergency contacts.
- Confirm badging, escorts, vehicle permits, security training, and controlled-area access dates.
- Approve the project schedule, procurement milestones, testing plan, commissioning sequence, and turnover requirements.
- Assign responsibility for contractor quality control, owner inspection, quality-assurance testing, nonconformance decisions, and acceptance.
- Set reporting frequency, incident notification timing, meeting cadence, escalation contacts, and procedures for unplanned operational conflicts.
- Record open items, responsible parties, due dates, and the documents that must be approved before each phase begins.
Use clear go or no-go gates
Before award, reject or condition a proposal when the bidder cannot substantiate a required capability. A defensible decision requires evidence that:
- The proposed team has directly relevant airport experience and confirmed availability.
- The schedule and resources fit the airport’s operating constraints.
- The bidder can implement the CSPP and produce an approvable SPCD.
- Quality-control duties and owner acceptance authority are understood and contractually aligned.
- Critical subcontractors, suppliers, equipment, insurance, bonds, licenses, and security submissions are verifiable.
- References support the bidder’s claims about safety, quality, schedule, communication, and closeout.
If a bidder passes only because the owner assumes an unlisted subcontractor, overlooks an unresolved security issue, or accepts a generic safety narrative in place of project controls, the procurement has not established deliverability. Resolve those gaps through the published clarification process or select the bidder whose evidence satisfies the solicitation without undocumented assumptions.
Check current FAA guidance before award
FAA circulars and standards can change. The FAA listed a draft AC 150/5370-12C issued July 15, 2026, with an August 14, 2026 comment deadline; its draft status and any post-comment revision should be verified before award. Confirm the current versions of applicable circulars, the airport’s adopted amendments, and every project-specific requirement at the time of procurement.
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