TxDOT
Contents
Bidlo tracks public lettings in all fifty states. This page covers TxDOT — the other owners are on Agencies, and the whole of it is counted on Market data.
What is a TxDOT letting?
A letting is the day the owner opens the bids. TxDOT’s own words: “Letting is the official receipt and opening of bids and determination of the apparent low bidder.” Texas has run its road work this way since 1925, when the legislature wrote the low-bid rules TxDOT still bids under. Read on https://www.txdot.gov/business/road-bridge-maintenance/contract-letting.html, 2026-09-15.
Three words carry the rest of this page. A bid tab is the tabulation TxDOT posts after a letting: every bid received on one job, item by item. A bid item is one priced line on that job’s bid sheet — a code, a description, a unit and a quantity. The engineer’s estimate is TxDOT’s own price for the same work, which is what every bid is measured against.
How often does TxDOT let work?
Once a month, over two days. TxDOT holds its statewide low-bid construction and maintenance letting in Austin on two consecutive days each month, and posts the dates for the current and the following fiscal year. Districts let their own maintenance work on other days. The calendar below is TxDOT’s own, read on https://www.txdot.gov/business/road-bridge-maintenance/contract-letting.html, 2026-09-15.
| 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|
| Jan. 6–7, 2026 | Jan. 6–7, 2027 |
| Feb. 4–5, 2026 | Feb. 2–3, 2027 |
| March 4–5, 2026 | March 3–4, 2027 |
| April 7–8, 2026 | April 6–7, 2027 |
| May 6–7, 2026 | May 5–6, 2027 |
| June 2–3, 2026 | June 1–2, 2027 |
| July 1–2, 2026 | July 1–2, 2027 |
| Aug. 5–6, 2026 | Aug. 4–5, 2027 |
| Sept. 2–3, 2026 | Sept. 1–2, 2027 |
| Oct. 6–7, 2026 | Oct. 5–6, 2027 |
| Nov. 3–4, 2026 | Nov. 2–3, 2027 |
| Dec. 1–2, 2026 | Dec. 1–2, 2027 |
TxDOT publishes 2028 on the same page. Dates move, so read them off txdot.gov before you plan a bid day around one.
Where does TxDOT post letting data?
On txdot.gov, and on Texas’s open data portal. What is coming sits on the four-year project information dashboard, refreshed hourly from TxDOTCONNECT; what was bid sits on the bid tabulations dashboard and in the Bid Tabulations file on data.texas.gov. Plans and proposals are on Plans Online. Read on https://www.txdot.gov/business/road-bridge-maintenance/contract-letting/project-letting-dashboards.html, 2026-09-15.
| What you want | Where TxDOT puts it | How far it reaches |
|---|---|---|
| Jobs about to let | Four-year project information dashboard | 4 fiscal years ahead, refreshed hourly |
| Letting dates | Statewide letting schedule | This fiscal year and the next |
| Plans and proposals | Plans Online | Per letting |
| Bids as opened | Bid tabulations dashboard | The past 24 months |
| The same bids as a file | Bid Tabulations on data.texas.gov | The previous 24 months |
| Bid item averages | Bid items and index | The past 24 months |
TxDOT calls its own dashboards unofficial. The Electronic State Business Daily, the Electronic Bidding System and the project proposal are the official sources of advertisement and bidding information, and they take precedence over every page listed above.
What is in a TxDOT bid tab?
Every bid on one job, line by line, beside TxDOT’s own estimate. A bid item is one priced line on the bid sheet: a bid code, a description, a unit and a quantity. The engineer’s estimate is TxDOT’s own price for that same line. TxDOT’s Bid Tabulations file carries all of it in 42 columns — 1,059,082 lines when read on 2026-09-15 at https://data.texas.gov/dataset/Bid-Tabulations/de7b-7dna.
| What it names | TxDOT’s own columns |
|---|---|
| The job | CONTROLLING PROJECT ID (CCSJ) · PROJECT NAME · HIGHWAY · COUNTY · DISTRICT/ DIVISION |
| The day | PROJECT ESTIMATED LET DATE · PROJECT ACTUAL LET DATE |
| The bidder | VENDOR NAME · BID RANK SEQUENCE NUMBER · LOW BIDDER FLAG · BID TOTAL AMOUNT |
| The line | BID CODE · BID ITEM DESCRIPTION · BID ITEM QUANTITY · MEASUREMENT UNIT · BID ITEM UNIT PRICE AMOUNT |
| TxDOT’s own price | ENGINEER’S ESTIMATE UNIT PRICE · SEALED ENGINEER’S ESTIMATE PROJECT |
How far back does TxDOT bid history go in Bidlo?
To 8 July 2011, and unbroken since 8 January 2019. Bidlo holds 23,568 public TxDOT jobs, 672,256 bid sheet lines and 2,059,651 bid items — the unit prices as bid — from 65,503 bids, in all 254 Texas counties. 17,927 of those jobs have let and 5,611 carry a letting date still ahead. Queried on Bidlo production, 2026-09-16.
| What Bidlo holds | On 2026-09-16 |
|---|---|
| Public TxDOT jobs tracked | 23,568 |
| Of those, already let | 17,927 |
| Of those, letting date still ahead | 5,611 |
| Let in the last 12 months | 3,407 |
| Bid sheet lines | 672,256 |
| Bid items, priced as bid | 2,059,651 |
| Bids read back | 65,503 |
| Texas counties covered | 254 of 254 |
| Earliest letting held | 8 July 2011 |
| Unbroken since | 8 January 2019 |
51 of those jobs let before 2019, the earliest a single letting on 8 July 2011; from 8 January 2019 on, the run is unbroken. Bidlo reads what TxDOT publishes and keeps it after TxDOT’s own window closes. Nothing travels the other way: Bidlo files nothing with TxDOT and bids nothing on your behalf.
Every count above is of what TxDOT published. Work a Bidlo customer created inside their own team is not in any of these numbers, which is why the job count matches the one /market-data prints for TxDOT on the same day.
Can an agent read TxDOT letting data?
Yes, through Bidlo’s MCP server or its REST API, with a Bidlo account. Both take one API key and both are read-only. Anyone can get an account by booking a call: Bidlo sets the team up, and a team owner or admin then mints the key. There is no public key and no self-serve signup. The full guide is https://www.bidlo.ai/developers.
The server and the API read the same jobs, bid items, bid tabs and contractors your estimators see in Bidlo, TxDOT’s among them. Setup, tools, filters and the request shapes are on /developers.
What is not in TxDOT’s published bid tabs?
Anything older than 24 months. TxDOT’s bid tabulations dashboard and its Bid Tabulations file both reach back 24 months and no further, and bid tabs before January 2025 move to an archive. Neither says who won: the file states it carries only the totals of the bids as received, and does not represent that a contract has been or will be awarded. Read on https://www.txdot.gov/business/road-bridge-maintenance/contract-letting/bid-tabulations-dashboard.html, 2026-09-15.