Six contractors bid NYSDOT's Feb. 5 letting for contract D265653, pavement preventive maintenance on I-287 from Route 119 to Westchester Avenue in Westchester County. Grace Industries LLC came in low at $25,928,264.50. JRCRUZ Corp. was second at $29,852,903.60, $3,924,639.10 back, a 15.14% gap.

The full field: Grace Industries LLC $25,928,264.50; JRCRUZ Corp. $29,852,903.60; Yonkers Contracting Company Inc. $30,711,237.00; Restani Construction Corp. $35,224,932.30; ELQ Industries Inc. $36,296,196.50; J D'Annunzio & Sons Inc. $36,344,287.00. Low to high spread is 40.17% and the median is $32,968,084.65. The two highest bids, ELQ and D'Annunzio, landed just $48,090.50 apart.

NYSDOT does not print an engineer's estimate with its letting results. The public yardstick is the state's Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), which carries a construction line for each project. For PIN 872974, the STIP carries $28.0 million for construction ($34.1 million total project cost). Grace came in $2,071,735.50 under that line, 7.40%. Every other bidder was over it. The governor's October list of 2026 paving projects put the job at $33.6 million to resurface I-287 from Westchester Avenue to Route 119 in the Towns of Greenburgh and Harrison, the Villages of Elmsford and Harrison, and the City of White Plains.

The STIP describes the work as resurfacing the Cross Westchester Expressway to a state of good repair, with ramp resurfacing inside the limits and drainage improvements where feasible. It is part of the paving push the governor announced in October 2025 for the 2026 season: more than 250 pavement renewal projects statewide, about $1.2 billion. The advertisement set the deposit at 5% of bid, with a DBE goal of 0%. Our board carries it as RFI-002554.

Same letting, same region: contract D265691, traffic signal improvements on US 9W and NY 119, 117, 22 and 100B in Rockland and Westchester counties, drew exactly one bid. Verde Electric Maintenance Corp. bid $5,494,797.90, $43,202.10 or 0.78% under the $5,538,000 the STIP carries for construction on PIN 881527. That program entry describes replacing traffic control devices at intersections in the Towns of Orangetown, Greenburgh, Mount Kisco and North Castle and the Villages of Elmsford, Mount Kisco and Nyack, plus pedestrian upgrades, funded mostly through the Highway Safety Improvement Program. The proposal sets completion for Dec. 15, 2027.

Why this matters. Grace won by being the one bidder that priced under the state's number. The two New Jersey-based firms in the field, JRCRUZ and D'Annunzio, show Westchester interstate paving drawing from across the Hudson. On the signal job, one bid means no price competition at all. Electrical subs who want that work in future lettings should note that nobody else showed up.

What to do next. Apparent low is not an award. Milling, trucking, striping and drainage subs should be calling Grace with numbers built off its unit prices. Those are posted on NYSDOT's itemized tabulation for D265653. For signal and pedestrian-signal suppliers, Verde is the only name to call on D265691. Watch the Region 8 lettings for the next pieces of the 2026 paving program. Route 304 in Rockland is already on the Feb. 26 letting.

Update, Sept. 28, 2026: The governor's April 6 paving-season release listed 38 lane miles on I-287 from Route 119 to the Westchester Avenue interchange among the work getting underway. The release did not name a contractor (source: governor.ny.gov, April 6, 2026).