BRASFIELD & GORRIE

HEAVY CIVIL COMPLEXITY REQUIRES ADAPTABLE ESTIMATING PLATFORM

Bryan Myers, the firm’s Regional Preconstruction Director, estimates that about 20% of the firm’s projects fall in the heavy civil and industrial construction sector. Heavy civil projects range from hydroelectric dams to roadways and wastewater treatment plants, each requiring different estimating approaches. Unlike most commercial sectors with standardized bid formats, heavy civil clients often require highly customized pricing structures and deliverables.

“In the commercial and healthcare world, it's a bit more consistent across different clients,” Myers says. “But with a power company, we might have hundreds or thousands of bid items, and they want it broken up in different ways.”

Adding complexity is the high percentage of self-performed work on these projects, which requires detailed tracking of labor, equipment, and productivity.

“When it comes to self-perform work, using and leveraging the resource databases for labor, equipment, and supplies becomes very critical,” says Myers. “You need a more detailed estimate to support those operations.”

With such a diverse project mix, flexibility is crucial. That’s why Brasfield & Gorrie relies on InEight Estimate.

“Between the custom pricing structure and resource databases alone, InEight Estimate has been an invaluable tool for us and how we approach our business,” Myers says. “The customizable, detailed estimates of InEight are a real strength of the program. It’s flexible and robust enough to do whatever you want from a project estimating standpoint.”