The Department of Citywide Administrative Services is looking for a vendor to install, erect, maintain, dismantle and remove sidewalk sheds and scaffolding at city facilities in all five boroughs. It’s PIN 85626B0001, run out of DCAS’s Facilities Management and Construction division, and bids close November 4 at 10 a.m.

Read the wording. The vendor provides, during the term of the contract, the City’s requirements for labor, materials and equipment. That’s requirements-contract wording: DCAS calls the work in as its facilities need it, so you’re pricing what a shed costs, not what one job costs.

This isn’t the first shed contract on the City Record. A 2016 notice for sidewalk sheds and scaffolding set a term of 1095 consecutive calendar days, with an option to renew for two three-year terms, and an estimated contract value of $3,000,000.00. That one carried M/WBE participation goals under Local Law 1 of 2013. This year’s listing carries no dollar value, so pull the documents for the term, the value and any M/WBE goal before you price it.

What changed since then is the politics. In July 2023, City Hall’s plan to clear sheds and scaffolding off the sidewalks counted approximately 9,000 active, permitted construction sheds with an average age of nearly 500 days. The plan also said any city agency that owns a building or sponsors a project needing pedestrian protection would be required to assess whether netting can be used. A shed vendor working for the city now works for an owner that announced that rule for itself. Price the bid knowing it.

The pre-bid conference is October 7 at 11 a.m., held virtually, and it’s not mandatory. The link is in PASSPort, the city’s procurement portal, where the solicitation documents are posted. DCAS will open bids virtually too. Bids are due November 4 at 10 a.m.

On the record: 85626B0001-CSB Sidewalk Sheds and Scaffolding RC, issued by Citywide Administrative Services. Solicitation 85626B0001. Bids are due November 4, 2026 (Bids close at 10:00 AM.). The listing on City Record Online (CROL): https://a856-cityrecord.nyc.gov/RequestDetail/20260916015. Full record on The RFI Wire's board: https://therfiwire.com/rfi/RFI-003026.html.