Rebuilding
America:
Opportunities for small businesses
Increase Your Bonding Capacity
Becoming bondable is a challenge for many disadvantaged businesses. The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Bonding Education Program (BEP) aims to help businesses grow by obtaining or building bonding capacity.
Surety bonds can help your business win contracts by providing your customers with the security that the contract will be completed. Each USDOT BEP includes workshops with industry professionals offering business development and one-on-one sessions with local surety bonding representatives to help small and disadvantaged business owners compile the necessary components to complete a bond application. This program is tailored to businesses competing for transportation-related contracts.
Apply Today!
New York-New Jersey Transit, Highways and Aviation Infrastructure Projects
We are accepting applications for the NY/NJ USDOT BEP. Due to limited seating, we strongly
recommend you apply ASAP.
Deadline extended to October 5th. Late applications
will not be considered.
Step 1: Application
The application is an initial assessment designed to help us understand you, your business, and bond capacity needs. You will be notified of your application status within 5-7 business days and whether you will advance to the interview round.
Bonding Education Program Criteria
To be considered for the program, applicants must be the primary owner(s), key manager(s) or administrator(s) of a business that meet the following criteria:
- Existing in business for at least (2) consecutive years
- Have a minimum of (2) full-time employees (including owner)
- Pursuing transportation-related contracts
- Revenue of at least $250,000 annually
- Past performance in construction industry
- Interested in satisfying credit, capacity, and character evaluations in consultation with a surety representative
- Have one of the following
certifications/designations:
- Small Businesses
- DBE
- HubZone
- SDB
- Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business
- Veteran Owned Small Business
- Women Owned Small Business
- 8(a)
Step 2: Virtual Interview
BEP selects applicants for a virtual interview and will choose the final cohort of participants within 7-10 days.
New York-New Jersey Transit, Highways and Aviation Infrastructure Projects
NY/NJ Bonding Education Program Schedule
| Session | Topic | Date | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bonding and Insurance for New and Emerging Transportation-related companies | 10/11/2022 | 3:00pm - 5:00pm |
| 2 | Construction Accounting. Financial Management and Access to Capital | 10/18/2022 | 3:00pm - 5:00pm |
| 3 | Legal Issues, Claims and Dispute Resolution | 10/25/2022 | 3:00pm - 5:00pm |
| 4 | Safety Planning in Construction and Marketing to Government | 11/01/2022 | 3:00pm - 5:00pm |
| 5 | SBA: Surety Bond Guarantee Program and Procurement Contracting and Project Management | 11/08/2022 | 3:00pm - 5:00pm |
| 6 | Bidding and Estimating and Contracting Proposal | 11/15/2022 | 3:00pm - 5:00pm |
New York and New Jersey
Infrastructure Project
Opportunities
Is your business positioned to compete and win?
If you want to grow your business, surety bonds are a necessary part of business and part of the prequalification process to bid on construction and transportation projects.
New York and New Jersey have a 30% Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) goal, and 20% for Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE).
Participants from our last three programs secured more than $18,225,000 in Bond Capacity.
Make your business more competitive and attractive as a subcontractor, prime or joint venture partner, get guidance on the surety underwriting process, and learn how to grow your business with the backing of a surety's balance sheet.
Apply today!The four projects that we will focus on for this BEP are:
Hudson River Tunnel Project
$10 Billion
Hundreds of trains and hundreds of thousands of passengers per day pass through the tunnel during normal times, and delays can ripple up and down the East Coast between Boston and Washington. Once primary construction begins, the new tunnel could take as long as seven years to complete.
MTA, Amtrak Advance Plan to Expand Transit
$30 Billion
Both projects had progressed fitfully in recent years as the MTA and Amtrak couldn’t agree on dividing up the costs, particularly for the tunnels, which are owned by Amtrak but are used heavily by the MTA-operated Long Island Rail Road.
JFK TERMINAL 6
$2.0 Billion
JFK Millennium Partners has selected AECOM Hunt as the Design-Build team to provide the planning, design and construction services for the program which includes the New Terminal 6, supporting roadways, utilities and aircraft apron. With more than $2 billion in estimated project cost, many contracting opportunities are available.
Portal North Bridge Project
$1.56 Billion
This project is part of the massive Gateway Program, which will eventually double rail capacity between Newark, NJ and New York. The $1.56B construction project was awarded to Skanska and Traylor Joint Venture.
Pursue New Projects with Confidence
As a participant of the USDOT BEP, you will receive:
Surety Bond Resources
Get a prescriptive plan developed to meet the needs of your capacity and capital.
Non-Traditional
Lending Education
Learn how to obtain or increase your credit and get access to capital, technical, financial, and managerial assistance.
Specialized Training
Meet one-on-one with a surety bond professional to assemble and review your bond application.
Testimonials
"Since I attended the bonding training program, I started to supply temporary signs for VRH Construction as prime contractor. I also have two Hudson County contracts to provide paint, paint supplies and traffic signs. My firm has been selected by the NJ Innovation office for a Future of Work Accelerator program and we are getting ready to launch a 50 student pilot program in high schools. We match 18 year old students, including neurodiversity students, with employers for apprenticeship training while in school. Our initial concentrations are graphic design, e-commerce, digital marketing and medical billing/coding. Thanks!"
-Helena van der Merwe, A-Plus-Consulting LLC
"I am more prepared. The workshop has literally given me the groundwork that I need to consider beginning the bonding process. The individual professionals presented an overall view of how the various aspects of a business' performance affects its bonding capacity, detailed what I would need to move forward and provided insight into how best to align myself for success!"
-Connecticut BEP ParticipantÂ
"The entire team is extremely supportive and genuinely cares about our growth both professional and personal. I found every session to be judgment free, information-rich, and conducive to learning and collaboration. Thank you, guys!"
-Connecticut BEP ParticipantÂ
BEP's Mission
The Bonding Education Program's mission is to increase small businesses' economic competitiveness to maximize opportunities by becoming surety bonded and compete for transportation-related contracts through education and resources to understand risk management, safety, workforce development and company capabilities.
The Enterprise Center and The LaGuardia Community College Small Business and Entrepreneur Services Center are recipients of grant funds from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization ( OSDBU) to host the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Region Small Business Transportation Resource Center (SBTRC). The mission of the SBTRC is to provide technical assistance services to the small and disadvantaged communities to increase the number of small businesses that are prepared to compete for and enter into transportation-related contracts.
The Northeast SBTRC office serves:
Connecticut | Massachusetts | Maine | New Hampshire | New York | Rhode Island |
Vermont
The Mid-Atlantic SBTRC office serves:
Delaware| Maryland | New Jersey | Pennsylvania
Hosted By:
Our Partners and Collaborators
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