On-Demand Course

Please note this course is currently a presale purchase only. The course is currently under construction. All registrants will notified by email when the course materials are available in myLearning.

Interested in registering 5 or more engineers for a course? Contact us for information and rates.

Credits

0.5 CEUs / 5 PDHs

Pricing

Member $220 | Non-member $270

Instructor

Nils J. Gransberg, Ph.D., AC, A.M.ASCE

Purpose and background

This introductory-level course is designed to teach engineers and other construction professionals’ principles, tools, and techniques used to accurately develop unit pricing for heavy civil projects and understand how general contractors prepare competitive bids. State DOTs, municipalities, and other public owners utilize unit pricing to procure competitively bid heavy civil and other production-driven public works construction projects. Engineers play a key role in developing design products, producing quantity take-offs, and assisting owners in the procurement and administration of the work. These courses are designed to “bridge the gap” between the skills and tools taught in typical undergraduate civil engineering and what is needed to work in industry as an entry-level civil engineer. This course will take an estimated 5 hours to complete.

Benefits and learning outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • Calculate production-driven equipment and crew productivity.
  • Develop and optimize task-oriented construction equipment packages.
  • Calculate sustained production rates for earthmoving equipment packages.
  • Calculate yield and production rates for asphalt batching and screening plants.
  • Organize asphalt and concrete paving trains.
  • Employ fundamental tools and techniques to develop accurate pricing for unit price heavy civil construction projects.
  • Explain the differences between balanced, mathematically unbalanced, and materially unbalanced bids.
  • Analyze and properly employ public bid tabulations.
  • Develop unit price databases.

Assessment of learning outcomes

Achievement of the learning outcomes by attendees will be assessed through a final exam.

Who should attend?

  • Entry-level engineers
  • Architects and design professionals
  • Public owners or owner’s representatives
  • Capital projects staff
  • Construction administrators
  • General contractors
  • Project engineers
  • Project managers
  • Other construction professionals

Pre-requisites

  • There are no hard prerequisites for taking this course.
  • Recommend completing the online course, Estimating Quantities for Unit Price Projects.
  • Recommend education or work experience in civil engineering, heavy-civil construction, public works, general contracting, quantity surveying, cost engineering, project scheduling, other design disciplines, or similar.

Course outline

Module 1 : Earthwork production and equipment packaging

  • Lesson 1.1 = Introduction
  • Lesson 1.2 = Equipment and crew production rates – this video contains a short quiz
  • Lesson 1.3 = Construction equipment packages
  • Learning exercise
  • Lesson 1.4 = Earthmoving equipment production
  • Learning exercise

Module 2 : Asphalt and concrete paving

  • Lesson 2.1 = Introduction
  • Lesson 2.2 = Batching and screen plant equipment – this video contains a short quiz
  • Lesson 2.3 = Plant equipment production
  • Learning exercise
  • Lesson 2.4 = Paving train production
  • Learning exercise

Module 3 : Developing unit price bids

  • Lesson 3.1 = Introduction
  • Lesson 3.2 = Estimating unit prices – this video contains a short quiz
  • Lesson 3.3 = Estimating means and methods
  • Learning exercise
  • Lesson 3.4 = Unit price bids part 1 – this video contains a short quiz
  • Lesson 3.5 = Unit price bids part 2
  • Learning exercise

Module 4 : Unit price database development

  • Lesson 4.1 = Introduction
  • Lesson 4.2 = Bid tab analysis part 1 – this video contains a short quiz
  • Lesson 4.3 = Bid table analysis part 2
  • Learning exercise
  • Lesson 4.4 = Unit price database development tools
  • Learning exercise