Know about the work before it goes to bid.
EARL (Early Agenda, Regional Leads) reads more than 50 public sources across the Columbia Basin every week and tells you about construction work at its first public step, often months before a permit or a bid.
- Early noticeMartin Airfield grading and fill project, College Place
- Early noticeQuail Ridge phases 6 to 9, 229 lots, Richland
- Site workLatitude Apartments site development, College Place
- ForecastHanford WARM site preparation
- Open bidCounty Route 12 path repairs, Benton County
read every week
A project is public record long before it is a bid.
Most lead services start at the permit or the bid. By then the design team is picked and the bid list is filling. EARL starts at the first public filing.
- Stage 1 · EARL starts here
Proposed
A pre-application meeting, an environmental review notice or a land-use application is filed. The project has a name, a place and a size, and almost nobody is watching.
- Stage 2
Reviewed
It appears on planning agendas: hearings, plats, site plans, conditional uses and rezones. Public agencies approve design contracts and capital budgets that name the job.
- Stage 3
Permitted
Grading, site development and building permits are applied for and issued, with a declared value and often the contractor.
- Stage 4
Bid and awarded
Public work is advertised, bids are opened, and the award names the winner and the amount. Everyone can see it now.
EARL reports all four stages, and puts the first two up front. The earlier you know, the more you can do about it: call the owner, get on the bid list, price the dirt work, hold equipment, plan crews.
How we get the information.
Everything in EARL comes from records that public agencies publish themselves. We go to the source, every week, and read all of it so you don't have to check dozens of agency websites by hand.
The Columbia Basin edition draws on more than 50 sources of six kinds: city and county permit records, planning and land-use agendas, state environmental review notices, construction stormwater coverage, public bid boards and contract awards, and state and federal energy and procurement filings.
Where an agency publishes no permit list at all, we ask for it with a public records request, and keep asking each month.
Read at the source
Permit reports, agenda packets and notices are collected from the agency that issued them, and meeting packets are read page by page, not just the agenda titles.
Every week, on schedule
Collection runs automatically on our own hardware, and every run is logged and checked. A source that goes quiet raises a flag the same day.
Sorted and cross-linked
Each record is sorted by kind of work and size, then matched by parcel, address and location, so one project's filings line up across agencies.
Checked before it is sent
Duplicates are merged, superseded notices are dropped, and known errors in an agency's data are corrected before the issue goes out.
One email a week, earliest work first.
Organized by stage and kind of work, with the value where the record gives one. Every line links to the public record it came from.
- Early notice
Environmental and land-use filings
Environmental review notices, pre-application meetings, plats, site plans and rezones: projects at the proposal stage.
- Early notice
Planning agendas
What cities, counties, ports and utility districts are about to decide: hearings, design contracts, authorizations to bid, and budgets that name projects.
- Early notice
Watch list
Moratoria, zoning changes and public debate about data centers, industrial sites and housing: where work may be coming, or held up.
- Permits
New projects
Commercial, multifamily, site work and demolition permits, with the declared value and the contractor when the record names one.
- Public work
Bids and awards
Open bids with due dates, contract awards with the winner and amount, and federal market-research notices.
- Forecast
Hanford and energy
Hanford procurement forecasts, state energy-siting filings and federal power-system reviews in the region.
Public records, handled with care.
EARL reports what the record says and shows you where to check it. These rules don't bend.
Every line links to its record
Nothing is paraphrased from memory or passed along second hand. Each item carries a link to the agency's own document, so you can read it yourself before you act.
The businesses behind each project
When a record names the owner, applicant or contractor business, EARL shows it, along with the agency handling the file, so you know who to call.
What is known, and no more
A value appears only when the record states one, and a stage is reported as the stage it is. Early notice is not a promise that a project will be built.
For the people who do the work.
The same week's records mean different things depending on what you sell. Early notice helps each trade in its own way.
General contractors
See projects at the proposal and plat stage, and start the conversation with the owner before the bid list fills.
Subcontractors and trades
Know what is coming near you, and who won the job once it is awarded.
Equipment rental
Grading, site work and large builds, with the notices that tell you when ground is likely to move.
Suppliers and engineers
Volume headed to your area weeks ahead, and land-use filings and design contracts as they are approved.
Coverage: the Columbia Basin.
The first edition covers eight counties in two states, plus the Hanford Site. It goes out once a week.
More of Washington is in preparation. Tell us where you work when you ask for a sample.
Washington
Benton, Franklin, Yakima, Grant, Adams and Walla Walla counties
Oregon
Umatilla and Morrow counties
Hanford Site
Procurement forecasts and contract awards
Schedule
One issue each week, by email
See a recent issue for yourself.
We'll email you a recent Columbia Basin issue, free, so you can judge it against the work you already know about.
Your details are used to send the sample and to follow up about EARL. They are never sold or shared.