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By Bob Morgan

For a state that prides itself on more than 10,000 freshwater lakes and bountiful forests, going green is not a new concept for Minnesota. But, what may be newsworthy is the fact that Minnesota is the first state in the nation to embrace an all-digital construction communications process. The savings are green, too, cutting costs while cutting down fewer of its precious trees.

It all began in January 2007 when Minnesota’s Department of Transportation (MnDOT) began to implement an online, digital bid communications process on the Quest Construction Data Network. The online platform offered the state the opportunity to post its own project advertisements for free and upload plans. Once there, they become immediately available to contractors for review and bidding. The contractors can view detailed project advertisements, download the complete digital plan set, retrieve plan holder information, receive e-mailed addenda notifications, and view project bid results.

Downloads of the plan set, priced very economically at a fraction of hard copy costs, helped remove much of the financial deterrent of companies investigating and reviewing project bid opportunities. Easily accessed, low-cost bid downloads fostered more participation from potential contractors and suppliers, which ultimately meant increased competition and lower project costs.

By July 2007, 100 percent of MnDOT’s projects were being handled digitally on the Quest CDN platform. But the real test came in August of that same year when the I-35W bridge collapse occurred and 10 emergency projects were posted by the state during the first two weeks after the disaster.

The first bid communication was posted at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday. By the following Monday at noon, more than 20 bidders had responded. Six months earlier, this emergency need would never have happened in a “paper” bidding process where printing, copying, and mailing would have eaten up precious response time.

“In a crisis of such magnitude, where emergency response was critical, the digital bid communications process delivered beyond anyone’s expectations,” said Betty Buckley, MnDOT.

Less than two years after MnDOT began using the digital platform, every large state agency in Minnesota is using this process for all their construction bid communications. From an all paper communications process to a completely digital approach, Minnesota has now closed down its state printing facility, saving taxpayer dollars and a lot of paper to boot. Contrast this digital mentality in Minnesota with a recent Iowa state law mandating the paper bidding process.

A more recent and illustrative example of how the digital bid communications process is serving the state of Minnesota and its taxpayers involves a new light rail project proposed to run between the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The Twin Cities Met Council posted the largest “all digital” bid communications for the construction of this new light rail line on the Quest CDN platform. More than 270 sets of the construction bid specifications were downloaded; each set consisted of more than 8,000 pages plus 10 addendums. The total net effect was more than 4 million pages of paper saved and about $1 million in printing and shipping costs.

“When state and local budgets are strained and we are looking to trim costs from everything we do, this digital bid communications process makes real sense —dollars and sense — for Minnesota taxpayers,” said Donald Pleau of the Metropolitan Council.

As more states, municipalities, schools, and government agencies look for ways to cut costs and streamline the process of construction bid communications, the digital technology is only a double click away and proven to deliver more effective and efficient results.

Bob Morgan is founder and CEO of Quest Construction Data Network, a company headquartered in Minneapolis. For more information, visit www.questcdn.com.