The city's next round of prior-notice sidewalk repair contracts opened this week, and all three came in under the Department of Design and Construction's own estimates. Sixteen bids across three boroughs, three apparent lows, and one firm, Vales Construction Corp., sitting on top of two of them.

Bronx (PIN 8502026HW0020C, project HWS2026X), opened Sept. 24. Five bids against a DDC engineer's estimate of $6,133,000. Vales Construction Corp. is the apparent low at $5,900,550.30, which is 3.8% ($232,449.70) under the estimate. Behind it: Maspeth Supply Co, LLC at $6,297,275.34, D&G Elite Construction Inc. at $6,798,317.04, JRCRUZ Corp. at $6,878,331.27, and Dragonetti Brothers Landscaping, Nursery & Florist Inc. at $8,110,722.97. Vales beat second place by $396,725.04, or 6.7%. Low to high, the field spread 37.5%, with a median of $6,798,317.04. Board listing: RFI-002989.

Queens (PIN 8502026HW0021C, project HWS2026Q), opened Sept. 23. The biggest of the three. Six bids against a $14,710,000 estimate. Vales again, at $12,996,995.94, 11.6% ($1,713,004.06) under the number. Then D&G Elite Construction Inc. at $13,788,524.16, Power Concrete Co., Inc. at $14,533,329.96, Maspeth Supply Co, LLC at $14,941,417.68, JRCRUZ Corp. at $17,169,497.64 and Dragonetti Brothers at $20,194,440.05. The gap from first to second is $791,528.22 (6.1%); the spread from low to high is 55.4%. Median: $14,737,373.82, almost exactly on the estimate.

Staten Island (PIN 8502026HW0016C, project HWS2026R), opened Sept. 24. Five bids against a $5,380,000 estimate, and the sharpest pricing of the three. Maspeth Supply Co, LLC is the apparent low at $4,290,118.56, which is 20.3% ($1,089,881.44) under the estimate. JRCRUZ Corp. followed at $4,418,742.24, just $128,623.68 (3.0%) back, then BIB Services Corp at $4,616,793.72, DiFazio Industries, LLC at $4,913,894.44 and Dragonetti Brothers at $5,247,842.58. Even the high bid was under the estimate. Spread: 22.3%.

These are the city's standing sidewalk-repair contracts, bid one borough at a time. City Record shows DDC advertised this cycle's five borough packages together on Aug. 28, with Manhattan (HWS2026M) and Brooklyn (HWS2026K, advertised Sept. 4) still to open. The last cycle's awards give a sense of scale: City Record shows the Queens contract (HWS2025Q) went to D&G Elite Construction for $11,949,065 in June, Brooklyn (HWS2025K) to Power Concrete Co., Inc. for $8,696,464 in May, and Manhattan (HWS2025M) to Heavy Construction Co Inc. for $4,358,671 in May. This year's Queens low is about 8.8% above last year's Queens award.

All three numbers are DDC's preliminary results. The agency's posting says bid amounts are subject to verification and may change. An apparent low is not an award; that comes after DDC's responsiveness and responsibility review, and it shows up in City Record when it happens.

Why this matters. Largely the same pool of firms bid all three boroughs, and they priced each one differently. The Staten Island field bid well under the city's number from top to bottom, and the Queens median sat right on the estimate. Vales holding two lows worth a combined $18.9 million means a lot of concrete, curb and crew hours flowing through one shop if both awards come through.

What to do next. Concrete, curb, saw-cutting and trucking subs and suppliers should price to Vales for the Bronx and Queens and to Maspeth Supply for Staten Island now, before award, and watch City Record for the award notices. If you missed this round, Manhattan (EPIN 85027B0017) was due Sept. 28 and Brooklyn (EPIN 85027B0018) is due Oct. 1, both through PASSPort.