1. (a) Public reading. Bids will be opened and read in accordance with Transportation Code, §223.004 and §223.005. Bids for contracts with an engineer's estimate of less than $300,000 may be filed with the district engineer at the headquarters for the district, and opened and read at a public meeting conducted by the district engineer, or his or her designee on behalf of the commission.

2. (b) Proposals not read.

   1. (1) The department will not accept and will not read a proposal if:

      1. (A) the proposal is submitted by an unqualified bidder;
      2. (B) the proposal is in a form other than the official proposal form issued to the bidder;
      3. (C) the certification and affirmation are not signed;
      4. (D) the proposal was not in the hands of the letting official at the time and location specified in the advertisement;
      5. (E) the bidder modifies the proposal in a manner that alters the conditions or requirements for work as stated in the proposal;
      6. (F) the proposal guaranty, when required, does not comply with §9.14(d) of this title (relating to Submittal of Proposal);
      7. (G) the bidder did not attend a specified mandatory pre-bid conference;
      8. (H) the bid does not include a historically underutilized business subcontracting plan when required;
      9. (I) a computer printout proposal, when used, does not have the unit bid prices entered in designated spaces, is not signed in the name of the firm or firms to whom the proposal was issued, or omits required bid items or includes items not shown in the proposal;
      10. (J) the bidder was not authorized to be issued a proposal under §9.13(e) of this title (relating to Notice of Letting and Issuance of Proposals);
      11. (K) the proposal did not otherwise conform with the requirements of §9.14 of this title;
      12. (L) the bidder fails to properly acknowledge receipt of all addenda;
      13. (M) the proposal submitted has the incorrect number of bid items; or
      14. (N) the bidder bids more than the maximum or less than the minimum number of allowable working days shown on the plans when working days is a bid item.
   2. (2) If more than one proposal involving a bidder under the same or different names is submitted on the same project, the department will not accept and will not read any of the proposals submitted by that bidder for that project.

3. (c) Revision bid by bidder.

   1. (1) A bidder may change a bid price before it is submitted to the department by changing the price and initialing the revision in ink.
   2. (2) A bidder may change a bid price after it is submitted to the department by requesting return of the bid in writing prior to the expiration of the time for receipt of bids, as stated in the advertisement. The request must be made by a person authorized to bind the bidder. The department will not accept a request by telephone or telegraph, but will accept a properly signed telefacsimile request. The revised bid must be resubmitted prior to the time specified for the close of the receipt of bids.
4. (d) Withdrawal of bid. A bidder may withdraw a bid by submitting a request in writing before the time and date of the bid opening. The request must be made by a person authorized to bind the bidder. The department will not accept telephone or telegraph requests, but will accept a properly signed telefacsimile request. Except as provided in §9.16(c) of this chapter (relating to Tabulation of Bids) and §9.17(d) of this chapter (relating to Award of Contract), a bidder may not withdraw a bid subsequent to the time for the receipt of bids.
5. (e) Unbalanced bids. The department will examine the unit bid prices of the apparent low bid for reasonable conformance with the department's estimated prices. The department will evaluate a bid with extreme variations from the department's estimate, or where obvious unbalancing of unit prices has occurred. For the purposes of the evaluation, the department will presume the same retainage percentage for all bidders. In the event that the evaluation of the unit bid prices reveals that the apparent low bid is mathematically and materially unbalanced, the bidder will not be considered in future bids for the same project.

Source Note:The provisions of this §9.15 adopted to be effective November 23, 1994, 19 TexReg 8867; amended to be effective September 22, 1995, 20 TexReg 7086; amended to be effective December 12, 1999, 24 TexReg 10901; amended to be effective January 4, 2001, 25 TexReg 13007; amended to be effective June 17, 2004, 29 TexReg 5795.