New Online Dashboard Shows Diversity of High-Speed Rail Small Businesses Program

11 Feb

The California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) has launched a new online dashboard that tracks Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE), which include women- and minority-owned small businesses participating on the high-speed rail project. The feature is on the Authority’s small business program homepage at https://hsr.ca.gov/small_business/. “We designed the new dashboard to highlight minority-owned small businesses’ participation in building high-speed rail and to transparently …

Updated DBE & ACDBE Program Guidance During COVID-19

26 Nov

The US Department of Transportation released guidance documents addressing DBE and ACDBE program requirements during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency on March 24, 2020 and April 1, 2020. This guidance was updated on November 25, 2020. The program requirements are now extended until June 30, 2021. Overall DBE Goal Methodology Public Participation – Agencies are required to include public participation …

SB1 Increasing Opportunities for Small Business

15 Sep

SB1 was signed in 2017 and invests $54 billion over the next 10 years to improve and maintain California’s transportation infrastructure. This is a good news for small businesses (SBs), disabled veteran business enterprises (DVBEs), and disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs) because a trailer bill, SB103, now requires that Caltrans increase the dollar value of contracts and procurements awarded to SBs, …

Caltrans Increases Overall DBE Goal

07 Jan

On January 3, 2019, Caltrans announced that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has significantly increased the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Annual Overall Participation Goal to 17.6 percent on federally funded transportation projects in California. The new goal will apply to federally funded contracts entered between the federal fiscal years of 2019-2021.  The past six years have brought a 30-percent increase in …

Feds Investigate Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority

02 Oct

The Federal Transit Authority is investigating the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) after they received a complaint that the authority may have violated rules involving minority and women-owned businesses.  In a contract MV Transportation had with MARTA, the business agreed to a 20% DBE goal with minority-owned business, Gresham Transportation Services. However, Gresham says they never received the work …

DBE Matters – Goal Setting Website

04 Sep

As part of the DBE Think Tank, a contract goal setting website has been developed to provide people with a start point for contract goal development. Contract goals are set to address past and current discrimination in the marketplace and help counterbalance barriers to the participation of minority/women/disadvantaged business enterprises in contracts. To visit this new website, click here.

Update in DBE Goal Methodology

31 Aug

Local agencies must use the updated Exhibit 9-D template to calculate Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) goals for all federal contracts (consultant and construction) that will be advertised or authorized on October 1, 2018 or thereafter To access the Exhibit 9-D Form, click the link down below: Exhibit 9-D

CALTRANS Looking for 2016 Disparity Study Comments

23 Jun

Caltrans is looking for your comments on their 2016 Disparity Study to discuss options for setting Disadvantaged Enterprise goals. The study examines whether there are disparities between utilization of minority-owned/women-owned businesses and what might be expected based on their availability for transportation contracts. For more information, click here.