Loudoun County Brings First Local Road PLA into Virginia. Rt. 15 North Widening Bid

Loudoun County has accelerated the advertised Route 15 North Widening between Battlefield Parkway and Montresor Road, the road project the Board of Supervisors selected in October 2023 as its second pilot for a mandatory Project Labor Agreement (PLA).  The Board rescinded the first pilot PLA when Virginian’s4Fairness filed a protest over unfair competition.  Route 15 is the County’s first road project to carry a PLA mandate, and the solicitation leaves several important terms undefined. Members weighing a bid should understand what the documents say, and what they do not.

The Project

The County will widen by about 3.5 miles of Route 15 from two lanes to four. The work includes a Continuous Green T intersection at North King Street, a two-lane hybrid roundabout at Montresor Road, a stream relocation, and two parallel two-span steel plate girder bridges at Limestone Branch. The Board estimated the project at $44 million when it selected it, and it is funded with local dollars. It is a lump-sum contract with 1,187 calendar days to substantial completion and liquidated damages of $3,100 per day. Bidders must be VDOT-prequalified and show three references of $20 million or more.

What the PLA Requirement Says

Under Attachment 1, the low bidder must negotiate and sign a PLA with "one or more building trades councils or other appropriate labor organizations" within 60 days of award. Every subcontractor and sub-tier subcontractor must also be bound. The County calls this an "indirect pilot" and will not sign the PLA itself. It sets only minimum topics the agreement must cover: no strikes or lockouts, safety and apprenticeship programs, prevention of wage theft, and no payment of double or "ghost" wages. Everything else is left to the contractor and the unions to negotiate.

Two other provisions raise the stakes. Every bidder must certify that it accepts the PLA requirement and takes no exceptions; a bid with exceptions will be rejected as non-responsive. And Section 5.10 of the proposed contract states that failure to enter or maintain a PLA "may be grounds for termination."

Questions Remain on Implementation

Because the PLA itself will not exist until after award, bidders are being asked to price and bond, terms they cannot see. Firms reviewing the solicitation have questions about how a mandated PLA would be implemented on this project, and those questions cannot be answered without more information from the County. Until Loudoun provides that information, bidders are left to estimate labor costs and contract risks they cannot fully measure.

Why It Matters

That uncertainty lands squarely on the bidder. The lump-sum price must be firm for 120 days, the 5 percent bid bond is at risk if the low bidder cannot sign the contract, and the only route to clarity before bidding is the County’s written question process. Members should also remember the history: in October 2025, the County canceled its first PLA solicitation, for a government office building, two days before a court hearing on a lawsuit arguing the mandate violated Virginia’s Right to Work law and the Virginia Public Procurement Act. Those legal questions have not been resolved by a court.

VDOT-prequalified heavy/highway contractors, many of them open shop, are exactly the bidders this project needs. Whether they choose to compete may depend on whether the County provides more information before bids are due.

Key Dates

• Questions written to the Contracting Officer: Thursday, November 5, 2026, 2:00 p.m.
• Bids due: Friday, November 20, 2026, 4:00 p.m.

The solicitation and all attachments are posted on the Loudoun County bid postings page under IFB NG00004. The Contracting Officer is Kristy Varda.

Coalition Challenges PLA Mandate at Dulles Airport

Loudoun is not the only public owner in Northern Virginia pushing PLA mandates. Earlier this month, the coalition and its member contractors filed a formal bid protest with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) challenging a PLA requirement on a major runway reconstruction project at Dulles International Airport. The protest argues that the mandate shuts out qualified open-shop firms, undermines full and open competition, and conflicts with Virginia’s Right to Work law.

The protest asks MWAA to remove the PLA requirement and give contractors who were effectively excluded time to submit proposals. Whether the project is a county road or an airport runway, the coalition will keep challenging mandates that limit who can compete for public work. Members can count on VTCA and its partners to keep fighting on their behalf, and we will share updates as MWAA responds.