Infra Insight Blog

The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) annual report on federal bid protests includes useful insights into federal procurement trends that can help state and local government agencies mitigate bid protest risks. Among other findings, the GAO’s 2025 fiscal year report identified unreasonable technical evaluation, unreasonable cost or price evaluation, and unreasonable rejection of proposal as the three most prevalent reasons for sustained protests. Examining the cases identified by the GAO as exemplars for each of those reasons can help public owners understand procurement practice pitfalls that could expose them to protest ... 

The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) fiscal year 2024 report on federal bid protests includes useful insights into federal procurement trends that can help state and local government agencies mitigate bid protest risks. Among other findings, the GAO identified unreasonable technical evaluation, flawed selection decision, and unreasonable cost or price evaluation as the three most prevalent reasons for sustained protests. Examining the cases identified by the GAO for each of those reasons can help public owners understand procurement practice pitfalls that ...

On December 1, 2022, Nossaman partner Simon Santiago moderated a panel at the 2022 P3 Government Conference held in Arlington, Virginia, titled, “Best Practices for Successful P3 Procurements: Identify the Appropriate P3 Process for Your P3 Approach.” The panelists, comprised of Jack Callahan (Partner and Construction Industry Practice Leader, CohnReznick); Michael Kerrigan (Principal, Delgany Advisory); and Brandey McDonald (Project Director, Infrastructure Asset Management, Fengate), offered a variety of perspectives from the lens of legal, technical and ...

With the rapid pace of innovation and deployment of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) to enhance existing transportation infrastructure, transportation officials frequently procure and manage sophisticated systems that collect, use and maintain vast amounts of data. Today’s transportation officials must possess considerable technological proficiency in addition to their traditional expertise in civil engineering and construction.

Identifying technology to optimize infrastructure, and crafting complex technical specifications to procure the same, is ...

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, senior Department staff, and even an official from the White House gathered at U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters on July 20th to celebrate the grand opening of the Build America Bureau. After sharing a cake emblazoned with its logo, the dignitaries led a tour through the Bureau’s new office space in what used to be the library, replete with glass offices, motorized desks, and curved computer monitors. Compared to the cubical-farm offices of the modal administrations, the Bureau is clearly something different and new, and ...

A crucial highway improvement for the growing Phoenix region reached an important milestone November 2 when the Arizona Department of Transportation received proposals from all three short-listed teams vying to develop the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway Project.  The three multidiscipline teams are identified in our March 2015 blog.

This $1.9 billion megaproject includes the design, construction and 30-year maintenance of the last section of the Loop 202 Freeway – a route which will stretch 22 miles from the Maricopa Freeway segment of I-10 to the Papago Freeway segment of I-10 ...

Experience with innovative procurements indicates that holding one-on-one meetings with proposers is beneficial whenever selection is based on a best value evaluation of competitive proposals—whether the procurement contemplates selection based on initial proposals or whether selection will be made following discussions and receipt of revised proposals.  Some agencies are unaccustomed to holding confidential meetings with proposers and we are often asked for information about best practices for these meetings.  This blog discusses the benefits of such meetings and ...

If you want to know what a mature, effective federal and state P3 policy can look like, we need not look very far beyond our U.S. borders.  Two Canadian provinces, Ontario and British Columbia, provide us a road map for building successful, sustainable P3 programs and policies.

At the International Bridge Conference in Pittsburgh last month, panelists for a workshop on P3s, including Len Kozachuk with Infrastructure Ontario (IO), described the essential features of this agency and its alternative financing and procurement program.  The contrast with how our federal and state policy ...