Civil and Infrastructure Estimating Services

Civil Work Is Priced by the Unit-Price Schedule

On most public civil work you are not bidding a lump sum, you are bidding a schedule of unit prices — and how you load it matters as much as the total.

The bid schedule is the contract. Every item on it has a unit and an estimated quantity, and you are paid the unit price against the measured quantity. Getting the unit right matters more than getting the extension right, because the quantity will change and the price will not.

Quantities on the schedule are the owner's estimate. They are not guaranteed and they routinely move. An item where the actual quantity exceeds the estimate pays at your unit price, which is an opportunity or an exposure depending on how the item is priced.

Mobilisation and lump sum items carry the front end. How much of the project cost sits in the lump sum items against the unit price items affects cash flow through the whole job, not just the total.

So every item is priced on its own basis. Rather than a total divided across the schedule. An item priced as a share of the whole rather than on its own cost is how a unit-price bid becomes unprofitable on a quantity swing.

What We Quantify

Earthwork. Cut and fill from the surfaces with bank, loose and compacted volumes kept distinct, plus haul distance, borrow and disposal, undercut and the topsoil strip and respread.

Underground utilities. Sanitary, storm, water and dry utilities by size, material and depth, with structures, valves, hydrants, services and the trench, bedding, backfill and pavement restoration each run requires.

Drainage and stormwater. Pipe, inlets, manholes, culverts, detention and retention structures, outfalls and the erosion and sediment control that runs the length of the project.

Paving and surfacing. Asphalt converted to tonnage at the specified section, concrete paving by area and thickness, base and subbase, and the milling and removal on rehabilitation work.

Structures. Retaining walls, headwalls, box culverts, foundations and cast-in-place concrete with reinforcement and formwork quantified separately.

Traffic control and phasing. Maintenance of traffic through every stage, temporary signage, barrier, flagging and the sequencing the plan requires — a substantial line on any project in a live right of way.

Environmental compliance. Erosion and sediment control installation and the maintenance obligation through the project duration, dewatering treatment, and any permit-driven monitoring.

Restoration. Pavement, landscape, fencing and private property restoration behind the work, which is frequently the item that finishes last and is estimated least.

What Moves a Civil Number

The variables that decide more than the measurement does.

Haul distance. Earthmoving cost is a truck cycle problem rather than a volume one. The same cubic yard at two miles and twenty miles is not the same price, and where the disposal or borrow site is not identified, that is a large open assumption.

Subsurface conditions. Rock, groundwater and unsuitable material are the three largest variables in civil work, none appears on a plan sheet, and all three come from the geotechnical report.

Traffic and access constraints. Working in a live right of way with lane closures, restricted hours, pedestrian access and utility conflicts is a different operation from an open site at the same quantity.

Existing utility conflicts. Locating, protecting, supporting and occasionally relocating live services is slow work, and the record drawings for buried utilities are reliably incomplete.

Permit and agency requirements. Environmental permits, agency approvals and inspection requirements each carry duration as well as cost, and on public work they frequently govern the schedule rather than the construction does.

Season and weather. Earthwork is the most weather-exposed work there is. Saturated ground cannot be compacted, frozen ground cannot be placed, and a programme that runs mass earthwork through a wet season is a different estimate.

What You Should Send Even If It Is Incomplete

Civil bids are frequently prepared from partial information. These are the items that change the number most, so tell us what you have.

Any subsurface information at all. Even a boring log from an adjacent project narrows the rock and groundwater assumption enormously. Where nothing exists, the assumption goes on the face of the estimate.

The disposal or borrow site. Haul is a cycle cost, so the distance is one of the largest single variables on an earthwork-heavy job. Unidentified means assumed, and an assumed haul distance can be wrong by a multiple.

Utility record drawings, however old. Record drawings for buried utilities are reliably incomplete, and knowing that they are incomplete is itself useful. Conflicts are slow work and the estimate should say what was assumed about them.

The permit conditions. Environmental permits frequently impose monitoring, restricted work windows and specific control measures that are real cost and appear nowhere on the plans.

Phasing and access constraints. Whether the road stays open, whether access has to be maintained to properties, and what hours work is allowed all change productivity more than the quantities do.

Whether the quantities on the schedule are reliable. If you have reason to think an item's estimated quantity is wrong, say so. That changes how the item should be priced regardless of what the schedule says.

Frequently Asked Questions