Procurement Bids in Colorado

There are 44 open procurement opportunities in Colorado from 7 state, county, city, school, hospital, and university agencies as of November 9, 2026. 19 of them close within the next seven days.

The top agencies posting bids in Colorado right now are Federal Government, Jefferson County. Each maintains its own vendor portal and posting schedule.

Register on Colorado Vendor Self Service (VSS) (https://www.colorado.gov/vss) for state-level opportunities. Register through Vendor Self Service for state procurement opportunities. For federal contracts, register on SAM.gov (free; assigns a UEI). For local agencies, registration is on the platform they use — Bonfire, PlanetBids, BidNet Direct, DemandStar — typically one registration per platform covers all agencies using it.

The most-active industries in Colorado government procurement right now are Construction, Healthcare, Information Technology. Browse each by industry to see current opportunities filtered to Colorado.

Colorado operates the following preference and set-aside programs: Colorado Small Business Reserve, Emerging Small Business Program. Each has its own certification process; check the state procurement office for eligibility details.

Colorado procurement is governed by Colorado Revised Statutes Title 24 Article 103 (Procurement Code). This includes bid solicitation, contract award, and vendor protest procedures. The state procurement office publishes implementing regulations and manuals.

Save a search on ProcureTap filtered to Colorado to receive email alerts when new bids match your criteria. You can also subscribe to the state's official portal notifications. Larger agencies (state DOT, department of general services) publish quarterly forecasts of upcoming solicitations.

Every six hours. ProcureTap re-scrapes the Colorado state procurement portal plus every county, city, school district, hospital, and university procurement system in the state on a six-hour cadence, so new postings appear here within hours of being published.

Colorado generally does not restrict bidding to in-state vendors, but many agencies offer local-preference points or ties-broken-in-favor-of-local scoring, and some contracts under specific dollar thresholds may be limited to registered Colorado vendors or certified Colorado small businesses. Read each solicitation's evaluation criteria carefully.

Register on Vendor Self Service (colorado.gov/vss) — the Commonwealth's procurement platform. Colorado Small Business Reserve certification is through the DPA State Purchasing Office. CDOT construction bidders need additional Contractor Prequalification. Local governments (Denver, Colorado Springs, Jefferson County, Boulder) require separate registrations on their own platforms.

The Small Business Reserve targets Colorado-based small businesses on state contracts under $250,000 — both a bidding preference AND a set-aside for select categories. Colorado Emerging Small Business (ESB) certification is a further subset for microbusinesses. Certification through DPA is required to bid on Reserve contracts.

The Colorado Department of Transportation publishes lettings through the CDOT Bidding System. Bidders must complete CDOT Contractor Prequalification before bidding. Bids are sealed unit-price on a bill of quantities. Federal-aid projects carry Davis-Bacon wages, Buy America iron/steel (49 CFR 661), and DBE subcontracting goals typically 10-12%. State-funded projects carry Colorado prevailing wages if over $500,000.

The Public Works Contract Law requires state and local public-works contracts over $500,000 to pay Colorado prevailing wages set by the Department of Labor and Employment. Wage schedules are trade- and county-specific and updated regularly. Enforcement is active — non-compliance triggers penalties. Federal Davis-Bacon applies separately to federal-aid work.

RTD Denver operates commuter rail (A/B/G Lines), light rail (C/D/E/F/H/L/N/R/W Lines), and buses across the Denver metro. RTD runs its own procurement independent of CDOT and receives significant FTA funding — Buy America iron/steel and DBE subcontracting goals apply on federal-aid contracts. RTD procurement runs through the RTD Business Center at rtd-denver.com/business-center.

ProcureTap re-scrapes Vendor Self Service (colorado.gov/vss), CDOT lettings, RTD, Denver, Colorado Springs, Jefferson County, Boulder, University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and every Colorado county, city, school district, hospital, and university procurement system on a 6-hour cadence. New Colorado bids appear within hours of publication.