AB Infrastructure electronic bid bonds

In January 2022, Alberta Infrastructure moved away from accepting hard copy bid bonds and now only accepts electronic bid bonds as bid security.  The use of electronic bid bonds is commonly used by many large owners in the province and is known to the construction industry.  As we have had some time to monitor this change in process we have noted a few issues that we’d like to share with the Alberta Construction Association and its members.

The intent of the electronic bid bond is that Alberta Infrastructure receives an authenticated PDF that contains a link to the surety site enabling Infrastructure staff to immediately verify the authenticity of the bond.  Issues arise when the following actions occur:

  • bid bond is merged with the bid submission. (merging the bid bond with the bid submission breaks the electronic seal of the bid bond)
  • A PDF or photocopy is taken of the hand sealed bond document.

In all these cases the link to the surety website is broken preventing Infrastructure from immediately verifying the bond.

The bid bond should be submitted separately from the bid submission and in a format that allows Infrastructure staff to immediately verify the surety link in the document. Instructions and submission requirements for bid bonds are stated in the Bid Security section available online on the Infrastructure Technical Resource page.

Thank you for your attention to this and if you have any questions please feel free to contact Max Amodio, Director Procurement, 780-913-6414 or max.amodio@gov.ab.ca.

Article by Lena Hogarth
November 3, 2022

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