Committee reviews Alabama Builds website, weighs moving public-works notices off newspapers

A legislative interim committee on Nov. 4 reviewed contractor feedback on Alabama Builds, the state’s centralized website for public-works advertisements, and began shaping report recommendations for how public-works notices should be handled going forward.

Committee members said contractors are “very thankful that there is a centralized website,” and noted several near-term feature requests, including trade-specific search filters and the ability for contractors to sign up for notices for particular trades. “It’d be really great if you could click … a list of kind of trades that this will encompass,” one committee member relayed, quoting contractor feedback.

The committee heard that early adopters cheered the platform’s $25 flat posting fee. “The $25 is pretty pretty good, I think,” one member said. Reported usage so far includes about 14 posted advertisements, roughly 60…