Tenders by trade

Civil engineering tenders in South Africa

Civil engineering work on the feed runs from ward-level stormwater and road rehabilitation up to bulk water and sanitation infrastructure, and CIDB class CE is the registration it is most often advertised under.

Open now
309
On record
2 010
Awards published
262
Total awarded
R 638 808 143 737
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Open civil engineering tenders

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Largest published civil engineering awards

Open work by category

  • 159 Construction
  • 68 Civil engineering
  • 30 Construction of buildings
  • 28 Services: Civil
  • 15 Specialised construction activities
  • 9 Architectural and engineering activities; technical testing and analysis

Open work by province

  • 54 Eastern Cape
  • 53 KwaZulu-Natal
  • 47 Western Cape
  • 39 Gauteng
  • 31 Mpumalanga

About civil engineering procurement

Civil engineering tenders are dominated by municipalities and the road agencies, and the scope is measured rather than described. A bill of quantities carries rates against measured items, priced per cubic metre of excavation, per square metre of surfacing or per metre of pipe. Getting those rates right matters far more than the covering letter, because the arithmetic is checked and corrected before your price is compared with anyone else.

Registration for this work sits in the civil engineering class of the CIDB register, and the grade a municipality asks for tracks the size of the contract rather than the difficulty of it. Bulk water, sewer outfalls and provincial road rehabilitation reach the upper grades, while ward-level stormwater, gravel road maintenance and pipe replacement are routinely open to contractors in the middle of the register.

Two things sink bids that are otherwise competitive. The first is security: a performance guarantee and retention on every payment certificate are normal on infrastructure contracts, and the cash flow has to be carried for the duration. The second is the ground, because existing services, access and material conditions are what turn a priced rate into a loss, and the site inspection is the only chance to see them.

Where civil engineering is tendering

Open tenders right now. Counts come from the same feed as the list above.

Questions about civil engineering tenders

Which CIDB class covers civil engineering work?
Class CE. A civil engineering contractor registered in CE and graded for the contract value can bid the roads, stormwater, water reticulation and earthworks packages advertised in that class. Building work advertised as GB is a different class and a separate registration.
How is a bill of quantities priced for a tender?
You enter a rate against each measured item and the extended total becomes your tender sum. Evaluators check the arithmetic and correct errors under the standard conditions of bid, so a rate typed into the wrong row is not something you can repair after the closing time.
What is a performance guarantee and when is it needed?
It is security the contractor provides, usually a bank or insurance guarantee for a stated percentage of the contract sum, held while the works are executed. Civil engineering contracts ask for it as a matter of course, and retention withheld from each payment certificate sits on top of it.
Are site inspections compulsory on these tenders?
Sometimes. Each listing shows whether the buyer marked the briefing or site meeting compulsory, and where it is, non-attendance ends the bid. On infrastructure work the inspection is worth attending even when it is optional, because ground conditions are what move a priced rate.
Does this page show what a civil engineering contract is worth?
Not for open tenders. The eTenders feed carries no value on an open notice, so no rand figure is shown here rather than a guessed one. Award notices, where the buyer publishes them, do carry the amount the contract was awarded at.

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