Six small jobs, six different counties, one week to decide. If you're a shop that lives on task orders and repair contracts rather than nine-figure builds, this week's board is stacked in your favor — sewer lining in Rockland, generator swaps across four New Jersey DOT yards, a roadway mill-and-pave in Secaucus, a term contract for concrete repair across seven Jersey counties, and a rose garden in Essex County that only takes paper bids. Here's what's worth your estimating hours before Tuesday.
Start with Rockland County Sewer District #1's Hillcrest Interceptor job (RFI-002283), due October 5 at 3 p.m. — the earliest deadline in this batch, so if it's on your list, stop reading and go pull the docs now. It's cured-in-place lining on eight sections of the existing interceptor: clean the line, haul the debris, reline the eight sections, reopen every active service connection. CIPP work like this is a specialty trade with a short bidder pool, which is exactly why it's worth a look even on short notice. One catch: the county runs this through the Empire State Purchasing Group on BidNet Direct, and only documents pulled from that portal come with the actual drawings and addenda. A set grabbed secondhand from anywhere else isn't official — don't bid off it.
Four New Jersey DOT yards need new generators — Newark Hub #5, the Sand Hill and Freehold yard offices, and Lawrence Hub #2 (RFI-001981). The state's own estimate is $513,652, bids close October 6 at 2 p.m. through Bid Express only — no paper bids accepted. This one has teeth: four mandatory site visits already ran September 14, one per yard starting in Newark at 10 a.m., and if you weren't there your bid can't be accepted, full stop. You also need to be DPMC-classified in C008, C009 or C047, and you have to name DPMC-classified plumbing (C030) and electrical (C047) subs in your bid package or it gets thrown out before anyone reads your number. It's flagged as a small business opportunity, and minority hiring goals run 15 to 53 percent per craft depending on the county — check which yard you're pricing before you assume the goal.
NJDOT is also letting its 2027 term contract for concrete structural repair across the Central Region — Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Somerset and Warren counties (RFI-002244), due October 6. A term contract isn't one job, it's a standing call list: win it and the state rings you up against it all year, which is steady backlog if your shop can handle the call volume. NJDOT prequalification and bonding are required before you can even submit, and both take time — if you're not already prequalified, this due date may already be out of reach, so treat this one as a flag for next year's pipeline rather than this week's bid.
In Secaucus, the Town wants American Way and Hartz Way milled and repaved (RFI-003139), due October 6. The quantities tell you the real size of this job faster than any estimate would: 20,485 square yards of milling, 2,835 tons of surface course, 3,160 feet of concrete curb, 1,055 square yards of sidewalk, 810 feet of 15-inch concrete pipe. That's roughly 200 truckloads of asphalt by weight — a real paving job dressed up as a small-town resurfacing notice. There's a split completion schedule worth flagging for your schedule of values: drainage work is due by January 15, 2027, everything else by May 28, 2027 — miss the drainage date and you're exposed before the rest of the job is even due. Bid security is 10 percent capped at $20,000, New Jersey prevailing wage applies, and plans are on file at Boswell Engineering in South Hackensack for $10 a set.
Essex County, New Jersey wants its rose garden at Brookdale Park renovated (RFI-003137), 120 calendar days from notice to proceed, also due October 6. The trap here isn't in the specs, it's in the ordering process: plans and specifications are paper only, and you have to buy them in person for $150 — check or exact cash — at the county's Office of Purchasing, Room 335, 465 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Newark. No portal download, no digital set. Only firms that bought the documents directly from the county may bid, so if you're planning to chase this one, send somebody to Newark this week, not Friday.
Five of these six close within 24 hours of each other. If your shop is set up to chase small-to-mid repair and term work across state lines, this is the kind of week the Small Projects board exists for — just don't let the Rockland deadline sneak past you while you're pricing the Jersey jobs.