Rhode Island General Laws
Chapter 37-12 - Contractors’ Bonds
Section 37-12-1. - Contractors required to give bond — Terms and conditions.

§ 37-12-1. Contractors required to give bond — Terms and conditions.
Every person (which word for the purposes of this chapter shall include a copartnership, a number of persons engaged in a joint enterprise, or a corporation), before being awarded a contract by the department of transportation or by the department of administration, as the case may be, and every person awarded such a contract as a general contractor or construction or project manager for the construction, improvement, completion, or repair of any public road or portion thereof or of any bridge in which the contract price shall be in excess of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000), or for a contract for the construction, improvement, completion, or repair of any public building, or portion thereof, shall be required to furnish to the respective department a bond of that person to the state, with good and sufficient surety or sureties (hereafter in this chapter referred to as surety), acceptable to the respective department, in a sum not less than fifty percent (50%) and not more than one hundred percent (100%) of the contract price, conditioned that the contractor, principal in the bond, the person’s executors, administrators, or successors, shall in all things, well and truly keep and perform the covenants, conditions, and agreements in the contract, and in any alterations thereof made as therein provided, on the person’s part to be kept and performed, at the time and in the manner therein specified, and in all respects according to their true intent and meaning, and shall indemnify and save harmless the state, the respective department, and all of its officers, agents, and employees, as therein stipulated, and shall also promptly pay for all such labor performed or furnished, together with penalties assessed pursuant to § 37-13-14.1(b), and for all such materials and equipment furnished (which, as to equipment, shall mean payment of the reasonable rental value, as determined by the respective department, of its use during the period of its use), as shall be used in the carrying on of the work covered by the contract, or shall see that they are promptly paid for, whether or not the labor is directly performed for or furnished to the contractor or is even directly performed upon the work covered by the contract, and whether or not the materials are furnished to the contractor or become component parts of the work, and whether or not the equipment is furnished to the contractor or even directly used upon the work. The bond shall contain the provisions that it is subject to all such rights and powers of the respective department and such other provisions as are set forth in the contract and the plans, specifications, and proposal incorporated by reference in the contract, and that no extension of the time of performance of the contract or delay in the completion of the work thereunder or any alterations thereof, made as therein provided, shall invalidate the bond or release the liability of the surety thereunder. Waiver of the bonding requirements of this section is expressly prohibited.
History of Section.P.L. 1934, ch. 2105, § 1; P.L. 1938, ch. 2644, § 2; G.L. 1938, ch. 79, § 1; impl. am. P.L. 1939, ch. 660, § 100; impl. am. P.L. 1951, ch. 2727, art 1, § 3; G.L. 1956, § 37-12-1; P.L. 1988, ch. 449, § 15; P.L. 1994, ch. 431, § 1; P.L. 1999, ch. 367, § 2; P.L. 2009, ch. 354, § 2; P.L. 2016, ch. 537, § 1; P.L. 2019, ch. 60, § 1; P.L. 2019, ch. 72, § 1.

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