Los Angeles County Metro|Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services

LOS ANGELES COUNTY METRO

Los Angeles County – Metropolitan Transportation Authority

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) serves more than 9.6 million commuters within a 1,433 square mile service area and represents one of the largest economic development engines in the region. Successfully planning, designing. building and operating this immense transportation system requires a vast labor force – from forward-thinking employees to experienced contractors – in a wide range of fields. Demonstrating a keen understanding of the benefits of harnessing the diverse and talented labor pool available within the County, Metro has become a leader in contracting initiatives, policies and practices that nurture the inclusion, participation, growth and long-term capacity-building of small and diverse businesses.

With over $100 Billion of infrastructure work over the next 40 years and the power to hold prime contractors accountable to its values, Metro’s proactive stance translates to transformative opportunities for contractors throughout the County and stands as a model for doing well by doing right.

Photos Above: Los Angeles Gateway Plaza, Metro Authority Office (Header) – by Dave Parker – own work, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, (user-cropped image); Expo Crenshaw Underground – by Ron Macias for Metro, Metro Library and Archive, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Contractor Development and Bonding Program Services include:

Personalized business assessments to determine a contractor’s current capacity and opportunities for growth.
Workshops, training, individual and contract-specific support for securing bonding, financing, learning industry best practices and overall business development.
A cost subsidy for contractors to get the help of a professional accountant in preparing necessary financial statements.
Bid, performance, and payment bond guarantees to surety companies (up to the lesser of 40% of the bond amount or $250,000).
Coordinating with Third Party Fund Administrators to ensure that project-related expenses are paid in a timely manner.
Participation in the Prime Partnership Program, which helps create strategic alliances with Program Prime contractors, peers and public agency staff through networking, matchmaking and referrals.

Cost: Program services are sponsored by Los Angeles County Metro and are provided at no charge to participating Contractors.

Enrollment Eligibility: Contractor Development and Bonding Program (CDBP) eligibility is available to all small local contractors planning to bid on metro contracts and subcontracts. To learn more about obtaining the necessary certifications or becoming approved for participation, please visit the following link:

Metro Get Certified

Thoughtful strategies create long-term success

By planning small business inclusion into their long-term maintenance and development strategies, Los Angeles County Metro has been able to efficiently increase their pool of qualified contractors while nurturing the success of small, local business and the sustainable growth of the regional economy.

Established as a general engineering contractor in 2001, Max Out, Inc., specializes in demolition, site work, grading, asphalt and concrete paving and masonry services. After completing the Contractor Development and Bonding program in 2012, owner Rod Edison was able to increase the company’s bonding capacity and thereby take his business to the next level, subsequently building on each success to have access to ever-increasing work opportunities.

“The Contractor Development and Bonding Program (CDBP) assisted our company by increasing our bonding line. This gave us the opportunity to pursue a project with Skanska and through the performance of our work, we were offered a second contract working on the same project, which increased our total project sales to $700,000. Since then we have been requested to complete additional projects, for example Metro’s Regional Connector project, for which we constructed a LADWP vault, which was the first one cast-in-place in over 70 years. CDBP has facilitated ways for us to network and find more contracts with other Primes..”
— Rod Edison, Owner, Max Out, Inc.