The state opened 23 bids on Aug. 19 for parking lot repairs and new concrete entry stairs at the Orangeburg Armory in Rockland County, and Ground Control Excavating, Inc. of Warwick stands as the apparent low at $985,800. The job is contract Q2036-C from the state Office of General Services' Design and Construction group — general construction and site work at the National Guard post at 84 Old Orangeburg Road.

The field was deep. Bids ran from $985,800 up to $3,125,786 — the high number more than triple the low. ADP Group Inc sat second at $1,092,800, 10.9 percent above Ground Control. Twenty-three bidders on a sub-$1 million site job is the normal condition of this market: small, clearly defined public work draws a crowd, and the crowd showed up.

Here is the part every estimator should read twice. One bid actually came in lower than Ground Control's — Vertex Construction & Restoration Inc. at $921,538 — and OGS disqualified it for missing signatures on the bid form and the bid bond. Three other bids in the stack carry paperwork flags of their own. On a state opening, the low number only counts if everything behind it is signed and complete. Somebody left the pole position on a million-dollar job over a signature line.

That Aug. 19 opening was not the original date. OGS pushed it back three weeks by Addendum No. 1, issued July 24 — the original July 29 date moved to Aug. 19, with one added spec line clarifying how existing asphalt cracks get sealed. A later date usually pulls in more bidders; a 23-bidder field on a job this size fits that pattern.

What Ground Control signed up for is two linked jobs, done in phases so the armory keeps its parking. The lot work: mill and repave worn asphalt, crack-seal and reseal the pavement staying in place, new ADA-compliant curb ramps and detectable-warning pads at the pedestrian crossings, six new concrete-filled steel bollards guarding the entrance walk, new handicap and no-parking signage, and drainage structures raised to match new grade — split into two construction stages, rear lot first, so the building never loses all its parking at once. The stairs: the existing brick-and-wood entry stair comes out, replaced by a roughly 16-foot-wide cast-in-place concrete stair with stainless-steel handrails and anti-slip nosing on every tread — the drawings call out a specific product, AMSTEP Model 232A nosing or an approved equal. An existing stormwater line runs under the new stair footprint and has to be protected in place while the crew digs. Ten storage containers on site get moved out of the way during construction and put back when the work is done.

The clock runs long for a job this size: 377 days to substantial completion once the state Comptroller signs the contract, then another 90 days to physically close it out — the better part of a year and a half. Asphalt paving is barred between Nov. 15 and April 15, so a schedule that slips into winter waits on the paving until spring. The contract carries a $110,800 contingency allowance for work OGS orders in writing beyond the base scope. And because the armory stays open and operating throughout — it is the home station of Company B, 101st Signal Battalion — Ground Control's crew works under the same access rules as anyone else on a Guard post: a verified daily worker list, photo ID at the gate, and no drone photography of the property.

The armory itself has been a working Guard post since 1961 — 25,747 square feet of building on 13.75 acres, per the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs. Today it is the home station of Company B, 101st Signal Battalion, a New York Army National Guard communications unit. The lots and stairs on this contract are the ground those soldiers cross on drill weekends, and the everyday face of the post for its Orangeburg neighbors. It is not glamour work. It is what keeps a 1961 building usable.

The usual caveat carries extra weight on this one: apparent low is not an award. OGS marks these results unofficial until the award posts, and the bids are still under review — the same review that already knocked out the lowest number in the stack. Ground Control's price holds the spot for now. The award, whenever OGS posts it, is the only number that counts.