This section defines several terms used in the title, including awarding authority, force account work, life cycle costs, person, public property, and public works.
As used in this title, the following words have the meanings ascribed to them as follows: (1) AWARDING AUTHORITY. Any governmental board, commission, agency, body, authority, instrumentality, department, or subdivision of the state, its counties and municipalities. This term includes, but shall not be limited to, the Department of Transportation, the Division of Real Property Management of the Department of Finance , the State Board of Education, and any other entity contracting for public works. This term shall exclude the State Docks Department and any entity exempted from the competitive bid laws of the state by statute. (2) FORCE ACCOUNT WORK. Work paid for by reimbursing for the actual costs for labor, materials, and equipment usage incurred in the performance of the work, as directed, including a percentage for overhead and profit, where appropriate. (3) LIFE CYCLE COSTS. The total cost of ownership over the extended life of a public works project, taking into consideration the costs of construction, operation, and maintenance, less any value obtained from salvage and quantifiable environmental benefits, or the sum of all recurring and one-time (non-recurring) costs over the full life span or a specified period of a good, service, structure, or system, including purchase price, installation costs, operating costs, maintenance and upgrade costs, and remaining (residual or salvage) value at the end of ownership or its useful life. (4) PERSON. Natural persons, partnerships, limited liability companies, corporations, and other legal entities. (5) PUBLIC PROPERTY. Real property that the state, county, municipality, or awarding authority thereof owns or has a contractual right to own or purchase, including easements, rights-of-way, or otherwise. (6) PUBLIC WORKS. The construction, installation, repair, renovation, or maintenance of public buildings, structures, sewers, waterworks, roads, curbs, gutters, side walls, bridges, docks, underpasses, and viaducts as well as any other improvement to be constructed, installed, repaired, renovated, or maintained on public property and to be paid, in whole or in part, with public funds or with financing to be retired with public funds in the form of lease payments or otherwise.