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NYSDOT ESTIMATOR GUIDELINES August 27, 2012

This document contains guidelines for using Estimator Version 2.10a on NYSDOT projects. It is a supplement to the Software User’s Guide to address NYSDOT specific use of the product. The numbering convention used in this document corresponds to the convention used in the User’s Guide. 2.2.3 Generating a Support Request – The Generate Support Request Feature in Estimator shall be used by Consultants working for NYSDOT. Support for NYSDOT staff will be provided through the Office of Information Services Help Desk. 2.3.1 Setting Preferences Roll Up Item Quantity for Bid History Prices – NYSDOT will use this system management function to total the quantities of an item across groups for use with bid-based pricing. For items with bid history, the same unit price will be displayed for the same item in each group, consistent with current policy. URL Tabs for Catalog Selection – NYSDOT will be using one of two catalogs. The one catalog contains metric items (https://www.dot.ny.gov/estimator/nysdot.cat) while the other contains US customary items (https://www.dot.ny.gov/estimator/nysdote.cat). See Section 4.3 of these guidelines for opening or switching between catalogs.

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3.1.3 Understanding the Difference Between Estimate Groups and Catalogs – For NYSDOT projects, Groups shall be used to combine items into the various Engineering Shares required for the contract. Refer to the Estimate section in Chapter 21 of the Highway Design Manual for additional information regarding Engineering Shares. Additional information regarding Groups can be found in section 5.2 of the Estimator User’s Guide titled “The Groups and All Items Tabs”. 4.3 Opening an Estimate or Current Catalog Before creating or modifying an existing estimate, users should make certain that the corresponding catalog is loaded (i.e. Metric or USC) prior to opening an estimate. This will become apparent when someone attempts to add an item to an estimate from the item bid history catalog and the items appear grayed and crossed out. Opening an estimate from Project Wise will cause this to happen as well if the corresponding catalog is not loaded. Only those items where the units of measurement are neutral in either catalog will be darkened (i.e. Each, CD, LS, etc.).

To ascertain that the proper catalog is loaded:

1. Open Estimator and log in using your user name and password. 2. Select “Current Catalog” from the “View” drop down screen. The header information

for the USC catalog is named nysdote.cat with a spec year as 08 whereas the metric catalog is named nysdot.cat with a spec year as 95. If the catalog is correct, you can then open or create another estimate.

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To change the catalog:

3. First, close any estimate you have opened. 4. Select “Global Options” from the “Tools” drop down screen to access the “Estimator

Options” screen. 5. From the “Estimator Options” screen select the “URLs” tab and simply delete the

Catalog path, hit Apply and Close. This will load the Metric catalog without retyping the catalog path: https://www.dot.ny.gov/estimator/nysdot.cat To change to the USC catalog, add an "e" to nysdot.cat to change it to nysdote.cat in the catalog path after selecting the URLs tab and hit OK. This will load the USC catalog: https://www.dot.ny.gov/estimator/nysdote.cat

Opening an Estimate File Aside from the usual procedure to opening a file by selecting Open from the File menu and selecting an estimate, a user may experience having read only access from opening an existing file from Project Wise or from another source. To change this file to write accessibility, the user should open the file. If it indicates “read only” as shown below then go to the Edit menu and select Estimate Users and click OK.

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The read only status will disappear and the user should be able to write to the file through the Estimator program.

4.4.1 Saving Estimates / Using valid file names The file naming convention for NYSDOT projects is included in Appendix 14 of the Project Development Manual. 4.5.11 Select Customized Reports – Estimator uses Crystal Reports® to produce a quality printout of your estimate. NYSDOT has developed several custom reports to aid the user in producing a more accurate estimate and to enhance the reporting capabilities. For estimates prepared by NYSDOT employees, the custom reports are available in a shared directory that is accessible from within the Estimating software. For estimates prepared by Consultants, the custom reports are available for download at the NYSDOT Estimator web page. To access these new reports from Estimator select File > Print Preview to display the Estimate Print Options Screen. In the “Select Customized Report” section scroll down to the desired custom report and then select OK.

4.6 Verifying an Estimate – Verifying an estimate will not detect the following: • PIN Approved Special Specification Items – All items that require PIN approval are

available for selection in the Estimator Standard Item Catalog. The verification process will not identify which items require project specific approval. Refer to the Specifications section in chapter 21 of the HDM for additional information regarding the approval process.

• Lump sum quantities that do not equal 1.00 will not be identified.

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• Dollar and Cent Unit Item prices not equal to $1.00 will not be identified. • Items that require the same unit price in each group will not be identified. • Data included in fields that are not used by NYSDOT will not be identified. The following

fields shall not contain any data: o Item Level Supplemental Description o Group / Engineering Share level Alternate Code

5.1 Working with the Estimate Header ESTIMATE ID – The Estimate ID for estimates submitted for PS&E are generally the first six digits of the NYSDOT PIN without the decimal point. Any letters included in the PIN shall be entered as uppercase. ESTIMATE DESCRIPTION - The estimate description field should include a brief description of the project. This description is used to generate the newspaper advertisement for the project; therefore it must be descriptive enough to be informative to prospective bidders. Factors such as work type (Asphalt concrete resurfacing, bridge replacement, bridge rehabilitation, pavement marking, bridge painting, landscape planting, traffic signal installation and/or repair, etc.) should be mentioned first along with the town(s) and/or village(s) and route numbers where the work is to occur. This field should be limited to 120 characters to ensure that all information is passed to Trns*Port PES. SPEC. YEAR - Due to the way NYSDOT maintains the standard item catalogs, the 95 spec. year will be used for all metric contracts, whereas the 08 spec. year will be used for all US customary contracts. The 95 and 08 spec. year item catalogs include only approved 2006 and 2008 standard specification items. Both have general and PIN approved special specification items. BASE DATE - For NYSDOT projects the “Base Date” shall mean the “Letting Date”. WORK TYPES - NYSDOT work type codes with descriptions and examples are provided in APPENDIX A. LONGITUDE & LATITUDE OF MIDPOINT - These values could be entered in Estimator or after PES upload at the discretion of the NYSDOT Regional offices. When entering the values, the Latitude and Longitude coordinates should be the approximate midpoint of the project. For Region wide or multi county projects a point in the county where most of the work is anticipated should be chosen. There are a number of methods available to determine the coordinates of the midpoint of a project including the use of GIS software, CADD software, Google Earth or Google Maps. DISTRICT - For NYSDOT projects the “District” shall mean “Regional Office”. e.g. 01. The two digit Region number must be used to avoid errors uploading estimates into Trns*Port PES. FEDERAL / STATE PROJECT NUMBER - For NYSDOT this field will be left blank in Estimator. HIGHWAY TYPE - Highway types do not affect the prices in Estimator. The Highway type should be “undefined”.

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URBAN / RURAL TYPE - Urban / Rural Type does not affect the prices in Estimator. The Urban / Rural type should be “undefined”. SEASON – The following seasons have been established for NYSDOT contracts.

Winter - contracts let during the winter (12/21 <letting date < 03/20) Spring - contracts let during the spring (03/21 < letting date < 06/20) Summer - contracts let during the summer (06/21< letting date < 09/20) Fall - contracts let during the fall (09/21 <letting date < 12/20)

COUNTY - The County selected should be the County in which the majority of the work will be performed. The County is used in Estimator to assign the project to a market area for pricing. Prices will vary by market area. Market areas can be the Regional Office boundaries or other boundaries established for the specific catalog. Unless otherwise indicated in the catalog description, Regional Office boundaries will be used to define market area. CONTINGENCY PERCENT and MOBILIZATION - The Estimator Contingency Percent field takes the total of the items in the estimate and adds a percentage which appears as the job/estimate total. The contingency is used to factor in risk or unknowns not taken into account that might affect the estimate. As you approach a final estimate, the contingency should drop to as close to zero as possible. As a result of a NYSDOT custom process for calculating mobilization in Trns*Port PES, the contingency field in Estimator may be used for the mobilization amount for each project. There are two options available for including mobilization in an estimate. Option 1 - Include the mobilization item and amounts in each group. Include zero percent for contingency. Option 2 – Include the mobilization amount for the whole contract as contingency. Omit the mobilization items and amounts from each group. (Although this option will cause a warning message when you verify the estimate, the correct amounts for mobilization will be included in the estimate after the data is uploaded to PES.) 5.1.4 Setting the Estimate’s Options To ensure that all estimates are rounded to the same level of accuracy and to ensure compatibility with other NYSDOT software applications, the default “Estimate Options” settings shown below shall be used for all Estimates.

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Only Trns*Port items and codes allowed – This box shall remain unchecked for all estimates to maintain a rounding level that is compatible with other NYSDOT software applications. To ensure that only approved Trns*Port Items are used in the Estimate; all items shall be selected from the drop down menus. Any items manually entered into an estimate may drop out of the estimate during the PES upload process. 5.1.5 Web Services Tab Trns*Port Estimator includes a feature that allows the System Manager to establish links between estimate items and web services. These services have been set up for NYSDOT in house users to link pay item numbers within Estimator to information available in the Pay Item Catalog web application. https://www.dot.ny.gov/pic This feature is included at the item level in the Standard Item Catalog and within a project estimate. To access this feature in the Standard Item Catalog, select view, current catalog and select an item in the display. Click on the Pay Item Catalog tab to load the item information. To access this feature in a project estimate, select an item within an Engineering Share then click on the Pay Item Catalog tab to load the item information. After the item information is loaded the user can review the item information including special specification files or modify the bid history date and quantity filters to refine the displayed information. An additional feature included at the estimate item level is the ability to save the displayed information with the estimate. Screen shots showing the Pay Item Catalog tab and displayed information are included below.

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5.2 The Groups and All Items Tabs - For NYSDOT projects, Groups shall be used to combine items into the various Engineering Shares required for the contract. Refer to the Engineer's Estimate Section in Chapter 21 of the Highway Design Manual for additional information regarding Engineering Shares. Group Number – Groups, or Engineering Shares, shall be numbered consecutively in increments of 1 beginning with 0001. Supplemental Group Number – Current NYSDOT business processes do not support the use of the Supplemental Group field at the group level. This field shall be blank for all estimates submitted for PS&E. Alternate Group Code – Current NYSDOT business processes do not support the use of the Alt Code field at the group level. This field shall be blank for all estimates submitted for PS&E. Group Description – The group description field should include a description of the work included in the Engineering Share. This can be a description of a Highway, Bridge, Utility or Funding Source. When a separate Engineering Share is required for a Bridge in accordance with the Engineer's Estimate Section in Chapter 21 of the Highway Design Manual, the Bridge Identification Number (BIN) must be included in the description, i.e., BIN 1234567 - I123 over Route XX. Utility shares shall include the name of the Utility Company. 5.3 Working with the Estimate Item List Unit Prices

Lump Sum Items – The unit price for lump sum items shall be the dollar amount allocated to the group/engineering share. Dollar and Cents Items – The unit price used for all DC unit items in each group/engineering share shall be $1.00. For all other item units - When an item is included in multiple groups, the same unit price shall be used in each group/engineering share.

Quantities

Lump Sum Item Quantities - The quantity used for all lump sum items in each group shall be 1.00. Although Estimator will allow entry of any value for lump sum quantities, use of values other than 1.00 will cause errors in reports generated using Trns*Port data. Quantity Rounding – Unless otherwise provided for in the item specification, the combined quantity for each item in the estimate shall be rounded to the nearest whole number. The maximum rounding accuracy allowed for any item shall be one one hundredth of a unit.

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Distributing quantities into multiple groups – When distributing items into multiple groups, the rounding level for the item in each group shall be limited to one one hundredth of a unit. For example, a quantity of 1 EACH shall be distributed equally into three groups, as follows:

Group 1 = 0.33 Group 2 = 0.33 Group 3 = 0.34 Total = 1.00 EACH

Alternate Item Code - The Alt Code field at the item level is used to identify Alternate bid items. Refer to Engineer's Estimate Section in Chapter 21 of the Highway Design Manual for additional information regarding alternate bid items. Supplemental Description - NYSDOT business processes currently require that the Item level Supplemental Description field within Estimator be left blank. 5.4 Adding Items to Your Estimate - Only items that appear in the Standard Item Catalog shall be used in NYSDOT estimates. Refer to Chapter 21 of the Highway Design Manual for Special Specification Review and Approval procedures. 6.3 Adding Non-Standard Items to the Estimate – Only items that appear in the Standard Item Catalog shall be used in NYSDOT estimates. Refer to Chapter 21 of the Highway Design Manual for Special Specification Review and Approval procedures. Temporary Lump Sum Items - Temporary lump sum items have been included in the Standard Item Catalog and can be used for items that have not yet been approved for use. The temporary item numbers are 999.01 to 999.05. 7. Working with Catalogs and Code Tables - All catalogs will not be used initially by NYSDOT. Use of the Labor, Material, Equipment and Cost Sheet Catalogs will be phased in over time. 7.2 The Standard Item Catalog - The Standard Item Catalog includes either the approved 2006 or 2008 standard specification book, general and PIN approved special specification items. The item catalogs will be updated on a regular basis to include recently approved specifications. Disapproved items will be removed from the appropriate catalog on the date of the first catalog update after the disapproval date. The date of the item catalog update will be included in the catalog description. To ensure that only approved items are included in an estimate, all items shall be selected from the drop down menus. If an approved item is not found in the appropriate Standard Item Catalog, contact the Regional or Program area Special Specification Coordinator. Required Supplemental Description Indicator – NYSDOT does not currently use the Item level Supplemental Description field.

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7.3.2 Bid History Catalog - The bid history catalog will be updated on a quarterly basis. Initially, the bid history catalog will include 2 years of information. The catalog description will include the 2 year period used to generate the bid history catalog. Refer to APPENDICES B & C for an overview of information included in the bid history catalog. 7.3.3 Reference Prices Catalog - The Reference Price Catalog includes all items with units of measure = Dollars and Cents (DC). Additional fixed price items will be added over time. 8. Importing/Exporting from Estimator - Excel spreadsheets can be one of many formats that can be exported or imported from Estimator. Minor manual entries will need to be made to the project files that are imported from Excel:

1. Enter the group description(s) in the header area. 2. Click on the group names (shares) in the tree area to properly re-sequence the groups. 3. Enter the name of the Estimate ID in the header area.

APPENDIX ANYSDOT CONTRACT

WORK TYPES

CONTRACT CONTRACTWORK TYPE WORK TYPECODE DESCRIPTION EXAMPLESASPH ASPHALT: PRIMARILY ASPHALT WORK ASPHALT: HIGHWAY RECONSTRUCTION

TYPICALLY OVER 40% ASPHALT ITEM DOLLARS, ASPHALT: HIGHWAY RESURFACING NO MAJOR BRIDGE WORK

BLDG BUILDINGS BUILDINGSBUILDING DEMOLITIONREST AREASRESIDENCIES , SUB-RESIDENCIESTRAFFIC CONTROL CENTERS (BLDGS.)WICK'S LAW BLDG.CONTRACTS BLDG., SITE WORK HVAC, PLUMBING, ELECTRIC

BRCL BRIDGE CLEANING BRIDGE CLEANINGBRIDGE WASHING

BRPT BRIDGE PAINTING BRIDGE PAINTING OR CLEANING & PAINTING

CONC CONCRETE: PRIMARILY PORTLAND CEMENT CONCRETE CONCRETE WORK PCC PAVEMENT

CRKJ CRACKS & JOINTS CRACK SEALINGJOINT REPAIRJOINT SEALING

DRNG DRAINAGE DRAINAGECATCH BASINSCULVERTSDITCH CLEANING

ERTH EARTHWORK EARTHWORKEXCAVATIONSGRADINGRECHARGE BASIN CONSTRUCTIONSLOPE STABILIZATION

FENC FENCING FENCESGATESNOISE BARRIERS

GDRL GUIDE RAIL GUIDE RAILS

GENC GENERAL CONSTRUCTION: INTERCHANGE CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS WITH A MIX OF BRIDGE AND HIGHWAY MAJOR RECONSTRUCRION WORK WORK, TYPICALLY 20% OR MORE INDIVIDUALLY ALLOCATED TO: PAVING (ASPHALT OR CONCRETE), AND EARTHWORK (&/OR DRAINAGE) AND STRUCTURES

HMCL HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE & CLEANING HIGHWAY CLEANINGHIGHWAY SWEEPINGLITTER REMOVALGRAFFITI REMOVALPAVEMENT CLEANINGPAVEMENT SWEEPINGMOWING

ITS INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS

LSCP LANDSCAPING HERBICIDE APPLICATIONLANDSCAPINGTREE &/OR SHRUB TRIMMING &/OR REMOVALVEGETATION ENCROACHMENT

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APPENDIX ANYSDOT CONTRACT

WORK TYPES

CONTRACT CONTRACTWORK TYPE WORK TYPECODE DESCRIPTION EXAMPLESMISC MISCELLANEOUS BIKEPATHS, BIKEWAYS

SIDEWALKS, WALKWAYS, TRAILSCURBSSUBSURFACE EXPLORATIONSSOIL BORINGSM&PT FOR BRIDGE INSPECTIONS

PVMK PAVEMENT MARKING PAVEMENT MARKING

SGLT SIGNALS & LIGHTING SIGNAL REQUIREMENT CONTRACTSSIGNALSLIGHTING

SIGN SIGNS SIGNS, OVERHEAD SIGN STRUCTURES

STRS STRUCTURES BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION MAJORITY OF CONTRACT WORK IS BRIDGE RELATED BRIDGE REHABILITATION WITH INCIDENTAL APPROACH WORK

WWSB WHERE & WHEN / STAND-BY EMERGENCY STANDBYEMERGENCY WHERE AND WHENWORK ORDER CONTRACTS

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APPENDIX B

Overview of the Bid History Catalog – Average Item Prices

This section contains an overview of the information contained in the Bid History Catalog when viewing the average item price screen. Model Number - All unit prices are calculated using a combination of contract information such as quantity level, season, work type and area. Each model number represents a different combination of contract information used to calculate the unit price. Model 0 calculates the statewide average price for all contract occurrences. The other 15 models use various combinations of contract data to calculate unit prices. The data considered in each model is displayed in the Bid History Catalog view for each item. An * indicates that all data in the category was used in the calculation. Quantity Level - Each item occurrence is assigned a quantity level using the following quantity level definitions:

1 = Very Low, If the quantity level is 1, only the contracts that include item quantities in the lowest percentile range (i.e. 5th < quantity < 25th) are used to calculate the corresponding average price.

2 = Low, If the quantity level is 2, only the contracts that include item quantities in the second percentile range (i.e. 25th <= quantity < 50th) are used to calculate the corresponding average price.

3 = High, If the quantity level is 3, only the contracts that include item quantities in the third percentile range (i.e. 50th <= quantity < 75th) are used to calculate the corresponding average price.

4 = Very High, If the quantity level is 4, only the contracts that include item quantities in the highest percentile range (i.e. 75th <= quantity < 95th) are used to calculate the corresponding average price

* = All If the quantity level is *, all contracts that include valid item quantities (i.e. quantity level 1, 2, 3, or 4) are used to calculate the corresponding average price.

All item quantity outliers (i.e. quantity <= 5th or quantity >= 95th) are automatically excluded from the analysis.

Area - Regional Office designation. Area 1 indicates that only contracts let in Region 1 were used to calculate the average unit prices.

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Season - Each item occurrence is assigned a season based on the letting date. Only the contracts let during the corresponding season are used to calculate the average price.

Winter - contracts let during the winter (12/21 <letting date < 03/20) Spring - contracts let during the spring (03/21 < letting date < 06/20) Summer - contracts let during the summer (06/21< letting date < 09/20) Fall - contracts let during the fall (09/21 <letting date < 12/20)

Highway Type - Not currently used to calculate prices. Urban/Rural - Not currently used to calculate prices. Work Type - Work Type used to calculate the average unit price. Unit Price - Average unit price calculated by the model. All item price outliers (i.e. price > three standard deviations from the mean) are automatically excluded from the analysis before the average price is calculated. Number of Observations - Number of bids used to calculate the average unit price. NYSDOT currently uses the three low bids from each contract. If the number of observations is 3, this indicates that the calculation was based on the three low bids from one contract occurrence.

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APPENDIX C

Overview of the Bid History Catalog & Estimate Bid History Graph For

Regression Item Prices

This section contains an overview of the information contained in the Bid History Catalog when viewing the regression item price screen and in viewing the bid history graph when an estimate is generated. Model Number - Historical item price regression models are created from specific price qualifiers and variables. Combinations of variables are used to create eight different regression models and are shown in table 3-3 of the Estimators Users Guide. The variables include: Quantity, Work Type, Area and Season. Model 1 includes a regression based on all contract occurrences statewide regardless of the variables. The data considered in each model is displayed in the Bid History Catalog view and for certain items in an estimate by selecting the regression tab. Quantity Level - Each item occurrence is assigned a quantity level using the following quantity level definitions:

1 = Very Low, If the quantity level is 1, only the contracts that include item quantities in the lowest percentile range (i.e. 5th < quantity < 25th) are used to calculate the corresponding regression data.

2 = Low, If the quantity level is 2, only the contracts that include item quantities in the second percentile range (i.e. 25th <= quantity < 50th) are used to calculate the corresponding regression data.

3 = High, If the quantity level is 3, only the contracts that include item quantities in the third percentile range (i.e. 50th <= quantity < 75th) are used to calculate the corresponding regression data.

4 = Very High, If the quantity level is 4, only the contracts that include item quantities in the highest percentile range (i.e. 75th <= quantity < 95th) are used to calculate the corresponding regression data.

* = All If the quantity level is *, all contracts that include valid item quantities (i.e. quantity level 1, 2, 3, or 4) are used to calculate the corresponding regression data.

All item quantity outliers (i.e. quantity <= 5th or quantity >= 95th) are automatically excluded from the analysis.

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Area - Regional Office designation. Area 1 indicates that only contracts let in Region 1 were used to calculate the regression unit prices. Season - Each item occurrence is assigned a season based on the letting date. Only the contracts let during the corresponding season are used to calculate the regression data.

Winter - contracts let during the winter (12/21 <letting date < 03/20) Spring - contracts let during the spring (03/21 < letting date < 06/20) Summer - contracts let during the summer (06/21< letting date < 09/20) Fall - contracts let during the fall (09/21 <letting date < 12/20)

Highway Type - Not currently used to calculate prices. Urban/Rural - Not currently used to calculate prices. Work Type - Work Type used to calculate the regression unit prices. Unit Price - Regression unit prices are calculated by the model. The model that has the lowest Root Mean Square (RMS) for the specified variables will be chosen by the program and displayed in the item header and in the graph when generating an estimate. A specified percent of regression model outliers are automatically excluded from the analysis before the RMS is calculated. A 0.2 level of improvement must be made over the base model before keeping a regression model to generate unit prices. Models that are out of a range of three (3) standard deviations compared to the average prices will be excluded. Regressions with positive quantity coefficients (prices increases as quantity increases) will also be excluded. Number of Observations - NYSDOT currently uses 30 as the minimum number of observations (bids) used to calculate the RMS for each model. Not more than the three lowest bids (overall) from each contract are counted as observations towards anyone item of work. Models with less than 30 observations, after 10% regression model outliers have been removed, will be excluded from the program.