Every other guide in this series opens by asking how small a contract has to be before the bonds fall away. Virginia is the state where that question has the largest answer in the country, and the section spends most of its energy making sure you do not over-read it.
Five hundred thousand, three hundred and fifty thousand
Va. Code § 2.2-4337 sets both figures in one sentence, and attaches conditions to the second:
“Upon the award of any (i) nontransportation-related public construction contract exceeding $500,000 awarded to any prime contractor or (ii) transportation-related project authorized pursuant to Article 2 (§ 33.2-208 et seq.) of Chapter 2 of Title 33.2 exceeding $350,000 that is partially or wholly funded by the Commonwealth, the contractor shall furnish to the public body the following bonds”
Set that against the range. Pennsylvania’s general provision bites above five thousand dollars, Louisiana’s bond attaches above twenty-five thousand, Idaho’s at fifty thousand, Texas’s performance bond above one hundred thousand, Illinois at one hundred and fifty thousand, North Dakota above two hundred and fifty thousand. Virginia sits above all of them, on both limbs.
The timing is award, not execution and not commencement — the obligation attaches when the contract is awarded.
And limb (ii) carries two qualifiers that are easy to skim past. The project must be authorized pursuant to a named article of Title 33.2, and it must be partially or wholly funded by the Commonwealth. A transportation project that fails either test is not in that limb, and a contractor should not assume the lower figure applies to road work generally.
The direction that reverses
Virginia and Illinois both split their thresholds between transportation and everything else, and they split them the opposite way round.
| state | general | transportation |
|---|---|---|
| Virginia (Va. Code § 2.2-4337) | $500,000 | $350,000 — lower |
| Illinois (30 ILCS 550/1) | $150,000 | $500,000 — higher |
Virginia bonds road work sooner than buildings; Illinois bonds it later. Neither statute explains itself, and no principle recoverable from the text predicts which way a legislature will go. It is a useful corrective to the instinct that these statutes are variations on one national scheme — they are independent answers, and on this question they are contradictory answers.
The floor is on the requirement, not on the practice
Immediately after setting figures that would otherwise leave a great deal of Virginia public work unbonded, the section forecloses that reading:
“Nothing in this section shall preclude a public body from requiring payment or performance bonds for construction contracts below $500,000 for nontransportation-related projects or $350,000 for transportation-related projects authorized under Article 2 (§ 33.2-208 et seq.) of Chapter 2 of Title 33.2 and partially or wholly funded by the Commonwealth.”
That is a different drafting choice from a silent threshold. New Hampshire achieves the same effect by writing “and may if it involves an expenditure of less amount” into the trigger; Virginia does it in a separate saving clause. Either way the practical answer to “is my sub-threshold Virginia job bonded” is: read the solicitation, because the statute has explicitly declined to answer it for you.
The bond the prime may require of you
The second saving clause points downward rather than upward, and it is the provision a subcontractor should know about:
“Nothing in this section shall preclude the contractor from requiring each subcontractor to furnish a payment bond with surety thereon in the sum of the full amount of the contract with such subcontractor conditioned upon the payment to all persons who have and fulfill contracts that are directly with the subcontractor for performing labor and furnishing materials in the prosecution of the work provided for in the subcontract.”
Three details. The bond is in the sum of the full amount of the subcontract — one hundred percent, at the sub level. It is a payment bond, conditioned on paying those who contract directly with the subcontractor. And it is entirely at the prime’s discretion; the statute permits it rather than requiring it.
Nevada reaches a similar place by a different route: under NRS 339.025, on State Public Works Division projects the subcontractors furnish bonds to the Division, at $50,000 or 1 percent of the project, whichever is greater. Virginia’s version runs to the prime instead, and is optional.
For a subcontractor bidding Virginia public work, the consequence is that “the job is under the threshold” does not mean “no bond”. Your own bonding capacity can be engaged by the prime’s contract terms whatever the statute says.
What § 2.2-4337 does not reach
This page reads the thresholds, the two saving clauses and the subcontractor bond. It stops short of several things a claimant needs.
Va. Code § 2.2-4337 as we have read it does not give the penal sum for the prime’s own bonds — the $500,000 and $350,000 figures are triggers, not amounts, and the sum of the full subcontract amount quoted above belongs to the optional subcontractor bond rather than the prime’s.
It does not give the claim mechanics: who may sue on a Virginia payment bond, what notice they must give, or the deadline. Those are the provisions that decide an unpaid claim and they are not on this page.
And it does not cover bid security, which in Virginia sits in the procurement provisions rather than here.
