“Where have all the bidders gone?”

In recent years, there have been several public construction projects that the City of Worcester put out to bid for which  very few bidders responded, and the costs associated with those bids have generally exceeded the City’s estimates. Among these are the three­ way skybridge connecting the DCU Center with the Hilton Garden Hotel and the municipal parking garage and several fit ups for new tenants at Union Station. While the increased cost of steel and other materials may account for some of the additional price, it does not answer why so few contractors bid in the first place.