The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI), together with government agency Infrastructure South Africa (ISA), has opened a novel project preparation bid window to invite submissions from national and provincial government departments, State-owned entities, public entities and municipalities to apply for project preparation support. The project preparation support aims to expand the readiness of large-scale public sector construction projects worth more than R1-billion to be implemented, as one of the major contributing factors to underinvestment in infrastructure is the lack of sufficient project preparation support, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson said in Johannesburg on October 15.