As a recipient of federal funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), the ACE Construction Authority is pleased to report that it has received approval of its Annual Anticipated DBE Participation Level (AADPL) of 13% for FFY 2006/07 from California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).

Pursuant to recently released Race-Neutral DBE Policy directives issued by the U.S. DOT and Caltrans in response to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision in Western States Paving Co. v. Washington State Department of Transportation, effective May 1, 2006, the ACE Construction Authority has implemented a wholly Race-Neutral DBE Program.

A Race-Neutral DBE Program is one that, while benefiting DBEs, is not solely focused on DBE firms. A Race-Neutral DBE Program utilizes measures that can assist a wide variety of small businesses, including DBEs, by requiring local agencies to meet 49 CFR Part 26 obligations by utilizing race-neutral means of facilitating DBE participation, including arranging solicitations, times for the presentation of bids/proposals, quantities, specifications and delivery schedules in ways that facilitate DBE and other small business participation (e.g. unbundling large contracts to make them more accessible to small businesses, requiring or encouraging prime contractors to subcontract portions of work that they might, otherwise, perform with their own forces). Under a Race-Neutral DBE Program, the ACE Construction Authority may no longer advertise DOT-assisted contracts containing numeric race-conscious goals or require a proposer/bidder to utilize DBEs as a condition of award.

The ACE Construction Authority continues to strongly encourage the participation of DBE firms on ACE Construction Authority’s DOT-assisted contracts. For more information, please contact Cecilia Cardenas at (626) 962-9292.

• CUCP DBE Application
• Caltrans CUCP DBE Database