Reference library
Every standard, specification and rule you will be held to on a federal construction project — in one place, organized the way you work. Bookmark it before your next proposal. Free, no signup.
Design and construction criteria
The documents a federal design or construction submittal is actually reviewed against. Each agency maintains its own; where a project is joint, the criteria that governs is stated in the solicitation, not assumed.
Unified Facilities Criteria
The governing criteria for DoW design and construction. Applies across Army, Navy and Air Force unless a solicitation names an exception.
Unified Facilities Guide Specifications
The master specification sections DoW projects are specified from. Section numbering here is what appears in the project manual.
Facilities Standards for the Public Buildings Service
PBS design standard for federally owned and leased space. The document a PBS design submittal is checked against.
P100 Submittal Matrix
What has to be in each design submission and at what stage. Read alongside the P-100 itself.
VA Technical Information Library — PG-18 series
VA design manuals, standard details, master specifications and design guides, by building type.
USACE Engineer Manuals and Engineering & Construction Bulletins
Corps-wide engineering policy. ECBs carry interim direction that has not yet reached an EM.
Acquisition rules
The rules that decide how a federal construction project is bought, who may bid, and what the contract will say. Cited to the eCFR and acquisition.gov, which are authoritative and free.
FAR Part 36 — Construction and Architect-Engineer Contracts
The core construction part: contract clauses, bonding, liquidated damages, A/E selection.
FAR Subpart 22.4 — Labor Standards for Construction
Davis-Bacon application, wage determinations, and the certified payroll requirement.
FAR Subpart 16.5 — Indefinite-Delivery Contracts
Fair opportunity, ordering procedures, and the protest limits that apply to task orders.
DFARS Part 236 — Construction and A-E Contracts
DoW supplements to FAR Part 36, including the MILCON-specific provisions.
GSAM Part 536 — Construction and A-E Contracts
GSA supplements applying to PBS construction and design work.
VAAR Part 836 — Construction and A-E Contracts
VA supplements, including the veteran-owned preference sequence that governs most VA construction set-asides.
38 U.S.C. § 8127 — Veterans First contracting
The statutory basis for VA’s SDVOSB and VOSB priority. It is a statute, not a policy, which is why it outranks the FAR order of precedence at VA.
38 U.S.C. § 8104 — VA major construction authority
Sets the major/minor construction threshold and the congressional authorisation requirement.
10 U.S.C. § 2802 — Military construction projects
The MILCON authority itself. Read alongside § 2805 (unspecified minor construction) and § 2808.
Where the work is announced
Primary sources. Everything this publication reports is traceable to one of these, and every item we publish links to the record rather than to our summary of it.
Contract Opportunities
Solicitations, sources sought, presolicitations and award notices. The response date here is the one that governs.
Award and IDV data
The public face of FPDS. Award records, IDV children, obligations and recipient rollups.
Bid protest decisions
Published decisions. A sustained protest often changes evaluation practice across an agency, which is why we read them before the trade press does.
Inventory of Owned and Leased Properties
The federal lease and owned-building inventory. Use the live feature service — widely mirrored open-data copies are 2018 snapshots.
Capital Investment and Leasing Prospectus Library
Projects above the prospectus threshold, sent to Congress one to three years before a solicitation.
Federal Register
Rules and notices touching FAR Part 36, Davis-Bacon wage determinations and MILCON authorities.
Wage determinations
Davis-Bacon and Service Contract Act determinations by county and construction type.
Budget documents
Where a project exists three to five years before it is a solicitation. Reading these is the whole premise of the publication.
Military construction justification books
The MILCON request line by line, with a DD 1391 behind each project stating scope, cost and location.
VA Budget Submission, Volume 4 — Construction
Major and minor construction requests plus the long-range capital plan, including the outyear table behind our VA data product.
GSA Congressional Justification
The Federal Buildings Fund request — new construction, repairs and alterations, and the prospectus-level projects within them.
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