According to an article in the Boston Business Journal the bidders for stimulus projects continue to bid 15 percent below expected costs for projects. In the beginning of the stimulus activity, the bids were 20-40 percent lower than expected as companies simply wanted to get mobilized after a difficult time.
At the Federal Aviation Administration the low bids meant 347 projects were funded instead of the expected 301 with $1.1 billion according to Joel Szabat, US Department of Transportation, deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy.
I have written before about the “good deals” and I have also cautioned about change orders that can drive up costs of a project, here and here respectively.
While some increase is to be expected thus far the tax payers are the winners.