(a) Public opening. Bids will be opened in accordance with Transportation Code, §223.004 and §223.005.
  (1) Bids for contracts, other than building contracts, with an estimate of less than $1 million 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) Bids for a building contract with an estimate of less than $1 million may be filed with the Director of the Support Services Division at the headquarters of the division and opened and read at a public meeting conducted by the director of that division, or the director's designee, on behalf of the commission.
(b) Bids not considered.
  (1) The department will not consider a bid if:
    (A) the bid is submitted by an unqualified bidder;
    (B) the bid is in a form other than the official bid form issued to the bidder;
    (C) the certification and affirmation are not signed;
    (D) the bid was not in the hands of the letting official at the time and location specified in the advertisement;
    (E) the bidder modifies the bid in a manner that alters the conditions or requirements for work as stated in the proposal form;
    (F) the bid guaranty, when required, does not comply with §9.14(d) of this subchapter relating to the Submittal of Bid;
    (G) the proposal form was signed by a person who was not authorized to bind the bidder or bidders;
    (H) the bid does not include a fully completed HUB plan in accordance with §9.356 of this chapter when required;
    (I) a typed proposal form does not contain the information in the format shown on the "Example of Bid Prices Submitted by a Computer Printout" in the proposal form;
    (J) the bidder was not authorized to be issued a bid form under §9.13(e) of this subchapter relating to Notice of Letting and Issuance of Proposal Forms;
    (K) the bid did not otherwise conform with the requirements of §9.14 of this subchapter;
    (L) the bidder fails to properly acknowledge receipt of all addenda;
    (M) the bid submitted has the incorrect number of bid items;
    (N) the bidder does not meet the applicable technical qualification requirements;
    (O) the bidder fails to submit a DBE commitment within the period described by §9.17(i) of this subchapter relating to Award of Contract;
    (P) the bidder fails to meet the requirements of §9.17(j) of this subchapter relating to participation in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) E-Verify system; or
    (Q) 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) If bids are submitted on the same project separately by a joint venture and one or more members of that joint venture, the department will not accept any of the bids submitted by the joint venture and those members for that project.
  (3) If bids are submitted on the same project by affiliated bidders as determined under §9.27 of this subchapter (relating to Affiliated Entities) and the executive director has not granted an affiliation exception under §9.12(g) of this subchapter relating to the Qualification of Bidders, the department will not accept any of the bids submitted by the affiliated bidders for that project.
(c) Revision of bid.
  (1) For a manually submitted bid, a bidder may change a bid price before it is submitted to the department by changing the price in the printed bid form and initialing the revision in ink;
  (2) For a manually submitted bid, 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 but will accept a properly signed facsimile request. The revised bid must be resubmitted prior to the time specified for the close of the receipt of bids.
  (3) For an electronically submitted bid, a bidder may change a unit bid price in EBS and resubmit electronically to the electronic vault until the time specified for the close of the receipt of bids. Each bid submitted will be retained in the electronic vault. The electronic bid with the latest date and time stamp by the vault will be used for bid tabulation purposes.
(d) Withdrawal of bid.
  (1) A bidder may withdraw a manually submitted bid by submitting a request in writing to the letting official 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 requests, but will accept a properly signed facsimile request. Except as provided in §9.16(c) of this subchapter relating to Tabulation of Bids and §9.17(d) of this subchapter, a bidder may not withdraw a bid subsequent to the time for the receipt of bids.
  (2) A bidder may withdraw an electronically submitted bid by submitting an electronic or written request to withdraw the bid. An electronic withdrawal request must be submitted using EBS. The request, whether electronic or written, must be submitted by a person who is authorized by the bidder to submit the request and received by the department before the time and date of the bid opening.
(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; amended to be effective December 8, 2005, 30 TexReg 8181; amended to be effective December 11, 2008, 33 TexReg 10054; amended to be effective January 4, 2017, 41 TexReg 10663; amended to be effective September 19, 2018, 43 TexReg 5996; amended to be effective April 20, 2023, 48 TexReg 1968; amended to be effective May 15, 2024, 49TexReg 3373