Your Countdown Clock to Capturing a Bridge Contract

A bridge contract is not a stopgap to wait out—it’s a starting gun. The moment an agency awards one, the countdown clock begins on a window most competitors never see coming. Capture managers who move first to gather intelligence early and put the right information in front of the customer stand a greater chance of winning the follow-on. This article describes how to read that countdown clock and turn a bridge contract into a real capture opportunity.

Bridge Contracts, Defined

A bridge contract is a short-term, noncompetitive award that keeps an existing product or service in place while the government works out a delay in awarding the follow-on competitive contract. It is typically issued as its own contract action, not a modification to the expiring one. Here is what surprises most practitioners: the term “bridge contract” is not formally defined anywhere in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). However, the Defense Logistics Agency’s supplement, DLAD 16.191, identifies four circumstances when a bridge contract is appropriate:

• “The competitive follow-on contract or solicitation has been protested”
• “The approved acquisition strategy requires a necessary change that the HCA endorses”
• “A statutory or regulatory change necessitates a change prior to award”
• “Other circumstances that the contracting officer can demonstrate are not due to lack of advance planning or inadequate procurement execution result in delay of a solicitation or award”

How Frequently Bridge Contracts Are Used

While there are not many statistics on bridge contract use, Ellen M. Lord, then Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, and Deputy Chief Management Officer John H. Gibson issued a memorandum on Jan. 31, 2018, titled “Bridge Action Reduction Measures and Reporting Requirement,” observing that in fiscal year 2015, there were over 1,100 bridge actions with obligations exceeding $13.7B. Those bridge actions, in their view, represented lost opportunities for savings that could have been reached by awarding new, competitively awarded contracts.

Tips for Capturing a Bridge Contract

Test the Opportunity for Risk First

Not every bridge signals a coming competition. Some are protest-driven and resolve in weeks; others reflect an agency that is fundamentally behind and could re-bridge for years. Before investing capture resources, weigh these risks:

• Wrong assumptions about scope: A protest-driven bridge often previews an RFP that looks like the original with issues fixed. A bridge caused by a botched requirements package can mean a substantially different RFP. Confirm which scenario applies before building a position.
• Overexposure with the customer: Contracting officers watch closely for undue influence on an upcoming competition. Keep outreach in market research, intelligence gathering, and capability territory.
• Incumbent risk: If your company holds the bridge, expect heavier scrutiny on performance. A slip now can open the door for a challenger.
• Wasted spend: Some bridges settle into repeat sole-source extensions rather than a re-compete. Tie bid/no-bid decisions to real evidence of a coming RFP, not the existence of the bridge alone.
• Compressed timelines: Follow-on RFPs after a bridge often carry tight response windows. Capture work done during the bridge makes that timeline survivable for the proposal development team.

If the risk profile is acceptable, move forward.

Build a Complete Intelligence Picture

Extensively research three groups: the customer, the incumbent, and likely competitors:

• Customer: Identify the CO, COR, stakeholders, and agency executives who influence the decision, along with their individual priorities and pain points.
• Incumbent: Assess actual bridge-period performance, including CPARS trends, staffing stability, and service gaps a stronger offeror could close.
• Competitors: Map likely pursuers and pinpoint where your capabilities create a genuine—not marginal—advantage.

Define What Winning Looks Like

Go beyond general background. Understand the customer’s requirements, expected mission outcomes, acceptable quality levels, and service level metrics well enough to speak their language. Cost and risk tolerance matter just as much: a customer burned by one bridge is often wary of anything that risks producing another.

Brief the Entire Customer Body

Build market research briefings, capability statements, or live demonstrations, and present them to the full customer body, CO, COR, stakeholders, and executives alike, on market conditions and your ability to deliver their mission outcomes at a competitive price. Accurate market research directly addresses the customer’s underlying fear that another noncompetitive award is the only path forward, giving them the confidence and the justification to run a genuine competition.

Maintain Documentation Discipline

Agencies using the only-one-responsible-source exception must give alternative sources a meaningful chance to respond before finalizing a sole-source award. A capability statement submitted after the Justification and Approval is signed rarely succeeds. Keep past performance write-ups, CPARS data, and NAICS-aligned qualifications current throughout the bridge period so that your team can respond quickly.

The Bottom Line

Bridge contracts fill a genuine need, but the lack of a government-wide definition, the billions obligated through them, and their tendency to outlast their intended purpose make them a capture area worth watching closely. Lohfeld Consulting helps GovCon companies build the intelligence habits and documentation discipline needed to act the moment a bridge contract signals a coming opportunity. Contact us to learn how we can help your team stay ahead of the countdown clock.

Continue Reading

Deepen your capture expertise with these Lohfeld resources:

• How to Use AI for Ethical Competitive Intelligence: A practical framework for gathering customer, incumbent, and competitor intelligence ethically and at speed, directly relevant to the intelligence-gathering work a bridge contract window demands.

• FAR Overhaul Timeline: 2026 Changes & 2027 GovCon Outlook: A milestone-by-milestone look at the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul, including the competition and protest provisions that shape how bridge contracts are justified and challenged.

• How to Win Self-Scoring IDIQ Bids: Practical steps for building the pipeline, certifications, and past performance documentation that position your team to win the competitive follow-on a bridge contract is buying time for.

By Brenda Crist, Vice President at Lohfeld Consulting Group, MPA, CPP APMP Fellow

Lohfeld Consulting Group has proven results specializing in helping companies create winning captures and proposals. As the premier capture and proposal services consulting firm focused exclusively on government markets, we provide expert assistance to government contractors in Capture Planning and Strategy, Proposal Management and Writing, Capture and Proposal Process and Infrastructure, and Training. In the last 3 years, we’ve supported over 550 proposals winning more than $170B for our clients—including the Top 10 government contractors. Lohfeld Consulting Group is your “go-to” capture and proposal source! Start winning by contacting us at www.lohfeldconsulting.com and join us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube^(TM).