Bidding on Government Welding Contracts in Seattle, Washington

Public work in Seattle is real work, but it’s paperwork-first and schedule-second. If you’re a solo welder or small shop used to private jobs (quick decisions, messy scopes, handshake speed), you’ll feel the drag right away. The upside is steadier repeat work once you’re “in the system,” especially for on-call repair and maintenance contracts.

TL;DR

• City of Seattle postings are centralized on the City’s Procurement Portal powered by OpenGov (they moved new solicitations there starting Aug. 12, 2024). (seattle.gov)
• Start here for the City: https://www.seattle.gov/purchasing-and-contracting/doing-business-with-the-city (seattle.gov)
• Washington State bid notifications run through WEBS (Washington’s Electronic Business Solution): https://www.des.wa.gov/sell/how-work-state/register-bid-opportunities (des.wa.gov)
• Port of Seattle uses VendorConnect (also how you get seen for rosters): https://www.portseattle.org/faq/how-do-i-get-started-working-port (portseattle.org)
• Sound Transit has its own vendor portal (Biddingo network) for advertised solicitations: http://vendorportal.soundtransit.org (soundtransit.org)
• Expect 2–6 weeks from posting to bid due date on small stuff, longer on construction. Then add 2–8+ weeks for award/admin. Payment is commonly 30–90 days after invoicing in the real world (sometimes faster, often not).
• Odds: your first couple bids are more about learning the format than winning. Plan on losing a few before you land one—unless you’re subbing under a prime who already knows the agency.

Who Actually Wins These Contracts (and Your Real Odds)

For welding-heavy scopes, the winners are usually one of these:

Local “known” fab shops that already have insurance, bonds, safety program writeups, certified weld procedures, and a track record with that specific agency. They can turn a compliant bid around fast because the admin package is basically copy/paste.

GCs and civil primes who win the bigger job and then sub out the welding. If you’re small, this is where you can win sooner—because the prime cares about schedule and responsiveness, not just whether you’ve won a City contract before.

On-call contract holders. A lot of the bread-and-butter work isn’t a one-off project—it’s a contract vehicle (on-call, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, task order, etc.) where the agency taps the same few firms repeatedly.

For a first-time bidder going prime, your odds depend on how “commodity-like” the job is. If the solicitation is essentially price + basic compliance (think: straightforward repair with clear specs), you’ve got a shot. If it’s qualifications-heavy (past performance writeups, project approach narratives, resumes), you’re competing against firms that have a library of past public work to cite.

Your best early win rate tends to come from:

• small public works / small purchase quotes where they’re trying to get multiple quotes quickly, or
• being a subcontractor to a prime on a larger job.

What Agencies Actually Hire Welders For (In Seattle, It’s Usually Not Art Projects)

Most public-sector welding spend around Seattle is unglamorous: keep-it-running work on public assets. You’ll see opportunities that look like “steel repair” or “fabrication” but the real task is maintenance, safety, or lifecycle replacement.

Typical scopes where welders show up:

Maintenance and emergency repairs. Handrails, guardrails, gates, bollards, brackets, equipment frames, utility-related steel, access hatches, ladder systems, and one-off fixes when something gets hit, corroded, or fails inspection.

Retrofits and code/safety upgrades. Public facilities have constant ADA and safety work—stairs, railings, platforms, equipment protection, and structural misc steel.

Water/wastewater and utility support. This can be through City departments or utilities-adjacent agencies. Seattle Public Utilities, for example, points vendors back to City contracting resources and opportunities. (seattle.gov)

Transportation and transit-related steel. Sound Transit work ranges from small purchases (quotes) to big packages, but even at the small end they explicitly run procurements through their vendor portal and solicit quotes in certain dollar ranges. (soundtransit.org)

The key pattern: agencies love recurring, pre-priced, pre-vetted access to trades. If you’re looking for a stable pipeline, aim at getting onto an on-call/small works/roster style vehicle, not just chasing one-off bids.

Timelines (This Is Where Most Private-Sector Expectations Die)

Public timelines aren’t “slow” because people are lazy. They’re slow because the process is designed to be auditable: everyone gets the same info, changes are issued as addenda, bids are opened a certain way, awards can be protested, and payments run through centralized finance.

Bid window (posting to due date)

For smaller solicitations, you’ll often see roughly 2–4 weeks between posting and the due date. For anything with a site walk, lots of drawings, or multiple bid items, it can stretch 4–8 weeks. Addenda are common, and they can move dates.

What this means for you: if you don’t have your “admin package” ready (insurance letter, required forms, safety docs, etc.), you’ll burn most of the bid window just assembling paperwork.

Evaluation and award (due date to “you won”)

Even after bids close, it may take a few weeks to a couple months for award depending on complexity and internal approvals. On certain competitive processes, agencies also have mandatory waiting periods and formal notice steps.

Also: “intent to award” isn’t “notice to proceed.” Don’t buy material on hope.

Contract execution and kickoff

You might win and still wait while they finalize contract docs, collect bonds/insurance, confirm registrations, and route signatures. If you’re not already registered in their systems, that setup time is longer.

Payment timing (invoice to money in your bank)

Plan your cash flow like you will not be paid fast. Many public owners run net terms and internal approval chains that can push real payment timing out to 30–90 days after a “correct” invoice hits the system—especially if there’s any mismatch on the PO, deliverables, prevailing wage paperwork, or lien releases.

If long payment timelines are going to squeeze your cash flow, this is where invoice financing can help. Toolbox lets you advance 80–90% against approved public invoices at competitive rates, so you can keep crews working and bids moving without waiting 30–90 days to get paid. (See if you qualify at https://apply.toolboxlending.com/)

Where Bids Are Posted (Seattle-Area Portals That Actually Matter)

You don’t want to hunt across 30 websites every week. You want a short list, subscriptions turned on, and a habit of checking it.

• City of Seattle Procurement Portal (OpenGov) — The City centralized new procurement solicitations in OpenGov starting Aug. 12, 2024. This is where you’ll see public works, consulting, and routine goods/services opportunities in one place. (seattle.gov)
  Cadence: new postings pop up weekly; addenda can land anytime. Job sizes range from small repairs and on-call work to large public works packages.

• Washington State WEBS — If you want state agency work (or local agencies that choose to post there), register and pick commodity codes. State agencies are required to post goods/services solicitations in WEBS. (des.wa.gov)
  Cadence: steady flow; good for catching “quote” style opportunities and statewide contracts.

• Port of Seattle VendorConnect — Port uses VendorConnect as its contracting platform and vendor directory, and it’s the place they point vendors to for viewing opportunities and getting on rosters. (portseattle.org)
  Cadence: opportunities come in waves (capital programs), plus smaller services and specialty trades. Typical job sizes vary widely; the big money is usually under primes.

• Sound Transit Vendor Portal — Sound Transit advertises solicitations and notifications through its vendor portal; they also describe a quote process for certain purchase ranges (their published guidance mentions soliciting quotes from multiple companies for certain dollar ranges). (soundtransit.org)
  Cadence: frequent if you select the right commodity codes; lots of prime/sub potential.

A local note: the City of Seattle’s older Online Business Directory was a thing for years, but it’s been replaced by the OpenGov procurement portal, and the old directory was scheduled to be retired at the end of 2025. (seattle.gov)

Registration and Paperwork Realities (The Stuff That Loses Bids)

The welding is rarely the reason a small shop loses a public bid. It’s usually one of these:

You registered, but you didn’t subscribe/follow

Portals like OpenGov are built around notifications and addenda. If you don’t “follow” a solicitation or subscribe to categories, you miss amendments—and then you bid the wrong scope or miss a mandatory acknowledgement.

You missed a required form, signature, or acknowledgement

Bid packets love checklists. They also love disqualifying bidders who don’t follow them.

Common traps:

• Not acknowledging every addendum.
• Uploading the wrong file version (you used your saved copy, not the latest).
• Leaving blanks on certifications (even if “N/A” is acceptable, you didn’t mark it).
• Signing where your company name doesn’t exactly match registration/insurance.

Your business licenses/registrations don’t match the ask

For City work, Seattle’s own guidance is clear that winning bidders with a physical nexus in the city limits must hold or obtain a Seattle business license and a Washington state business license when applicable, and that construction requires you to be registered and licensed with the state as a contractor. (seattle.gov)

Even if you can submit a bid without a specific license in hand, you may need it before contract execution. That gap can kill you on schedule.

Insurance and bonding don’t line up with the solicitation

Some smaller repair work won’t require bonding; some will. Larger public works typically will. If you don’t already have a relationship with a surety and an agent who understands public work, start early—because “we can get it” is not the same as having it by the deadline they require.

Prevailing wage and apprentice utilization (if applicable)

Public work often comes with prevailing wage requirements, and in some cases apprenticeship or local hiring programs. If you’ve never run payroll this way, the admin burden is real. It’s not hard, but it is strict—and mistakes create payment delays.

Small Business Certifications and Set-Asides (What Helps, What Doesn’t)

Seattle-area agencies care about participation by women- and minority-owned businesses, but don’t assume that “being small” automatically gives you an advantage. You need to match the specific program requirements in the solicitation.

City of Seattle: self-identify and/or certify

The City notes you can self-identify as a WMBE through the City’s procurement portal, and you can pursue state certification through Washington’s OMWBE. (seattle.gov)

Self-identifying can help you get found and counted for outreach. State certification can matter more on funded projects where certification is required to count toward goals.

Washington State OMWBE certification (and newer categories)

OMWBE is the state’s certification body for minority- and women-owned businesses, and they’ve expanded certification options over time (including, as of 2025, a statewide LGBTQ Business Enterprise certification announcement). (governor.wa.gov)
If you qualify, being certified can help primes find you for subcontracting, and it can help agencies track spend toward goals.

Practical reality: certification rarely fixes a non-compliant bid. What it can do is get your phone to ring more often and make you more attractive as a sub.

How Agencies Evaluate Bids (High Level, Welding-Relevant)

You’ll generally run into two evaluation styles:

Low-bid (Invitation to Bid / ITB)

If it’s an ITB-style procurement, assume they care about responsiveness first (did you submit correctly?) and then price. Your job is to be clean, compliant, and unemotional. If you’re low and compliant, you’re in the conversation.

What this changes versus private work: you can’t “talk your way into” clarifying scope after the fact. Questions must be submitted through the portal during the question period, and answers come out as addenda for everyone.

Best value (RFP/RFQ)

If it’s qualifications or proposal-based, the agency is scoring you on experience, approach, staffing, schedule, safety, and sometimes equity participation plans. Price might be a smaller part of the score or handled later.

What this changes for a small welder: you need a simple capabilities packet ready—project descriptions, photos, a safety one-pager, and references that pick up the phone. This is also where subcontracting under a prime helps, because you can leverage the prime’s proposal machine while you supply the trade capability.

Common Public-Sector Gotchas (Seattle-Area Edition)

“Mandatory” site walks and pre-bids

If the solicitation says mandatory, treat it like court. Miss it and you’re done.

Also: attendee lists matter. Agencies like the Port will post pre-proposal conference attendee lists in some cases so vendors can connect with primes. (portseattle.org)
Even when it’s not posted, primes use these meetings to see who’s real and who’s just downloading plans.

Vendor portals are part of the bid

OpenGov, VendorConnect, WEBS, Sound Transit’s portal—these aren’t just bulletin boards. They’re part of how you submit, how you get addenda, and how your bid gets timestamped. Waiting until the last hour is how you end up emailing support while the clock runs out.

“Or equal” isn’t a suggestion

If a spec calls out a product or standard and allows “or equal,” there’s usually a defined substitution process. If you don’t follow it, your alternative gets ignored.

Scope is written to be enforceable, not convenient

Bid packages often include requirements that feel like overkill for a small welding repair—submittals, safety plans, certified payroll, closeout docs. They’re written for consistency and auditability. Your estimating needs to include the admin time.

Silence means “no”

In private work, you might call the PM and get a scope clarified on the fly. In public work, if it’s not answered through an official addendum or Q&A, it effectively doesn’t exist. If you assume, you price risk.

Realistic Entry Points for First-Time Bidders (How to Get Traction Without Bleeding Time)

1) Start as a subcontractor on public jobs already moving

This is the fastest way to touch public work without carrying the full compliance burden. Find primes doing:

• facility upgrades,
• utility work,
• transit/transportation packages,
• Port projects.

Show up to pre-bids, get on attendee lists, and send a one-page capability statement the same day with your certifications, equipment, and typical response times. Primes remember the subs who are organized.

2) Target on-call / roster style contracts

On-call vehicles are where small shops can build a relationship and repeat revenue. The work orders tend to be smaller, but the friction of “getting approved” is paid once, then reused.

For the City, the move to a centralized portal means you can watch for those recurring solicitations in one place (and you need to be registered there to respond). (seattle.gov)
For the Port, VendorConnect is explicitly positioned as the database for marketing yourself and getting notified based on NAICS codes. (portseattle.org)

3) Quote-level opportunities (small purchases)

Some agencies will solicit quotes from multiple vendors under certain dollar thresholds, and those opportunities often go to firms already registered in their systems. Sound Transit describes this kind of process for certain purchase ranges as part of how they buy. (soundtransit.org)
These are good “first win” targets because the paperwork load is usually lighter than a full public works bid—though still more formal than private work.

4) Build a reusable “bid kit” before you chase the next posting

If you only do one thing before bidding, do this: prepare a folder you can reuse every time. Not a 40-page novel—just the core items that keep you from scrambling:

• insurance certs and agent contact
• license/registration numbers
• safety summary and EMR if you have it
• basic capability statement with past work photos
• references
• standard pricing structure for T&M, shop rate, mobilization, emergency response (if you offer it)

That kit is what turns public bidding from an all-week ordeal into a few focused hours plus estimating.