View the Mayor's Office's press release

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. joined Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today to announce five reforms designed to increase competition to build the City’s infrastructure and drive the cost of City construction down.

“Today’s initiative is about increasing competition and decreasing costs. All of us here today have a common goal: striving to identify opportunities so that a broader pool of qualified contractors has a chance to improve this City,” Thompson said. “As the Mayor has noted in PlaNYC, our City will encounter significant population growth and with that greater demands on our resources and infrastructure. We must look for innovative ways to address these future needs and encourage – not inhibit – opportunity along that path.”

The reforms include allowing contractors to collect damages on certain construction projects for delays caused by the City, cutting in half the time it takes the City to process certain change orders, and dedicating resources to develop accurate project scopes and cost estimates before capital dollars are committed. These reforms are designed to entice more construction contractors to bid on the City’s core infrastructure projects – streets, sewers, water mains and bridges – as well as other projects such as parks, police precincts, firehouses and courthouses.  Increased competition will drive down construction costs, which by some estimates, are rising one percent per month.

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