(a) Legislative findings. — The General Assembly finds that certain market conditions, including but not limited to a diminished number of available private contractors and/or limits on competitive pricing opportunities for basic materials, can impede the State's ability to complete its highway construction and reconstruction projects on a timely and useful schedule. Under these circumstances, the General Assembly finds that the limited use of an open-end contract process for such work may enable the Department of Transportation to meet its capital improvement schedules despite these impediments. (b) Notwithstanding any portion of this chapter to the contrary, the Department of Transportation is hereby authorized to use an open- end contract process for highway construction and reconstruction projects, under the following terms and conditions: (1) As used herein, "open-end contract" means a contract for highway construction and reconstruction work to be performed for a defined period of time, not to exceed 3 years, in which the Department may designate 1 or more locations for highway construction and reconstruction projects to be completed during the contract period, and in which the payments for the work to be performed at such locations are calculated based on a unit price/item basis during the contract period. (2) The Department shall limit the use of this contract process to no more than 25% of its total authorized capital improvement budget for the applicable fiscal year or years, in order to provide adequate alternative contracting opportunities for those seeking to work on other Departmental highway construction and reconstruction projects. (3) The Department may award open-end contracts to more than 1 firm, for work anywhere within the State, as it deems necessary. (4) In all other respects, the award and execution of open-end contracts shall be deemed to have complied with the provisions of this subchapter.
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