Texas DOT Expansion Opportunities — July 2025

Winning TxDOT work isn’t just about guessing low. It’s about seeing where the money went, how many people showed up, and where no one bothered to compete. July’s data gives a simple map of that: who spent, who bid, and where the doors were left half open.

July wasn’t the biggest month of the year, but it was broad and busy. TxDOT let $674.7M across 188 projects in 91 counties, drawing 861 total bids from 245 distinct firms, with 15 single-bidder awards (≈8% of jobs) where one contractor stood alone.

July’s dollars were concentrated but not narrow. A few counties carried a big share of the total, and two coastal counties alone accounted for almost 40% of all spend.

Top Counties by Total Spend (July 2025):

Taken together, the top five counties by spend accounted for just over half of all July dollars. For contractors, that split the month into two worlds: a few big, crowded pots and a long tail of smaller jobs where the money was thinner but often less watched.

“Spend per bidder” is simply project dollars divided by the number of bidders. It tells you how much money each participant was effectively competing over.

Top 5 Counties by Spend per Bidder (July 2025):

Leverage was strongest where big jobs met short bidder lists. Kleberg and Galveston, in particular, gave each participant an unusually large slice of potential work, even though those jobs still drew multiple names.

Across July, 15 projects were awarded with just one bidder. El Paso led with 3 single-bidder awards, while twelve other counties — including Galveston, Webb, Nueces, Lubbock, Orange, Bexar, Grayson, Kaufman, Cass, Brown, Lamar, and Brazos — each had 1.

These are the quiet places in the data. When a job lets with only one proposal, it usually means either geography, timing, or scope kept competitors away. For contractors willing to look slightly off the main path, these counties show where bids can feel less like a fight and more like a conversation.

Competitiveness Rankings by County (July 2025)

Over the trailing year, TxDOT let $11.45B across 1,851 projects in 226 counties, with about 7,830 total bids from 517 participating firms and 147 single-bidder awards. It’s a big market, but the money and competition are not evenly spread.

Large metros like Travis, Dallas, Harris, Brazos, and McLennan still carry almost half of statewide spend, and they draw deep bidder pools. But the best margin often lives just outside those hubs — in places like El Paso, Nueces, Bowie, Montgomery, and Webb, where the dollars are meaningful and the field occasionally thins. A contractor who can work both worlds — metro volume and edge-of-market gaps — will see more options than someone who only chases the biggest headlines.

County Competitiveness: Last 12 Months (Aug 2024–July 2025)

In the end, opportunity is just the overlap between where money flows and where others don’t show up in force. Bidlo’s job is to make that overlap visible, month by month, county by county, so you can decide where to lean in, where to test the edges, and where to quietly become the default bidder.

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