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Estimating earthwork projects is no easy job. The key to success (and survival) for many earthwork contractors is an accurate estimate of earthwork volumes. Estimates require a lot of time and skills to determine the amount of cut and fill required and the quantities of dirt needed, including the amount of labour and materials that will be involved.
Even with great blueprints doing all this by hand can take up huge amounts of valuable time and also involve some amount of guessing. This, of course, leads to high bids which cost you the job or too inaccurate bids that eventually eat up some or all your profits. The fact that many contractors in the industry are doing the same thing means that they are making the same errors. But thanks to technology, others are getting ahead of their peers by investing in software applications that improve the takeoff process.
Earthwork takeoff software such as Mudshark now provides cutting edge tools that deliver precise earthwork estimates, and in record time. With pinpoint accuracy when it comes to estimates, earthwork takeoff software saves contractors a lot of time and provides proven ROI that comes from the increased efficiency levels. The benefits in terms of the time saved alone are well worth the value of deploying takeoff software.
Contractors still say that Sitemaps and surveys can be wrong to some degree, and that there is no real substitute for good-old fashioned job-site reconnaissance. They cite errors from time to time that could have been made during the survey or that the site may have been physically altered since the last survey. In such cases, estimators have to return to the surveyor’s source, that is the benchmarks, and ensure that they are still valid.
When calculating earthwork volumes, errors often come from carrying out area measurements beyond the justified limits of the field data. Others include calculating volumes over and above the nearest cubic yard and a failure to correct for curvature when a section of a horizontal curve (a roadway alignment for instance) has a cut on one side and a fill on the other side.
However, mistakes in calculating earthwork takeoffs also come out of math errors, that is, using the wrong formulas for volume, mixing cut and fill quantities. Of course, errors and error margins can never be entirely eliminated. They can only be kept at a minimum. This can be incredibly difficult to achieve with traditional manual methods. The earthwork takeoff software provides pinpoint accuracy and also cut down the total time it takes to provide estimates
Errors are actually cumulative in nature because a daisy chain of about 90% accurate measurements will eventually result in a bigger error margin rate. Experienced engineers, contractors, surveyors, and estimators can sometimes confuse between accuracy and precision. These two concepts are completely different. Precision primarily refers to the number of units used to describe a measurement, that is, how close together the measurements are and not how close they are to the true (correct) values. Accuracy on the other hand points to how close a measurement is to the “real” value. Therefore, being more precise may not improve accuracy and estimators ought to be more concerned with accuracy.
Earthwork takeoff software can consistently handle complex math while cutting down the error margins and the time it takes to complete the estimates. Some of them allow estimators to pre-build work-lists that include materials, labour, and equipment, all assembled for them. Then all they have to do is to drop in the area of work, and the system spits out all the numbers for them.
Making accurate bids are critical to the success of any contractor. If your bid is too high, you may get tossed out without as much as a consideration. If you bid too low, you may get the job, but you risk losing money in the end. Therefore, the key to winning bids is the ability to get that sweet middle spot where you significantly enhance your chances of winning and also make a neat profit. That sweet spot can only come from producing accurate bids and which can only come from using earthwork takeoff software.
Estimating earthwork construction deals with many assumptions and unknowns. Therefore, it is the one part of any construction project that presents the greatest financial risk to the contractor. Without an accurate estimate of earthwork volumes, a contractor will, for instance, be unable to correctly assign construction assets or even to formulate a project schedule.
Earthwork takeoff software can provide a site layout for earthwork analysis from a blueprint. They can calculate cut and fill, stripping, strata quantities, topsoil re-spread, subgrade materials, areas and lengths, trench excavations and backfill, all from digitizer input or CAD imports. Earthwork takeoff software can also print out 3D drawings, cross sections and scaled plans, and also generate existing, proposed and underground strata surfaces. Estimators can then provide professional, customizable estimates, all exportable to popular legacy applications such as Excel, Word, Outlook, Suretrack, Primavera, or Microsoft Project.
One of the most critical developments in software-aided construction estimates is the ease of use. Earthwork takeoff software such as Mudshark are now designed with the end-users in mind and feature user-friendly on-screen navigation and integration with other systems. With just a little training, project team members can quickly be up and running on the system.
Estimators can now benefit from the improved accuracy and consistency of their estimates. Previous systems of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets had constant formula errors made while transferring subtotals between worksheets. Other errors would be made when estimators forgot to update a material or a change in subcontract pricing in multiple locations within the spreadsheets. Using earthwork takeoff software, estimators can now spend less time checking their math extensions and more time analysing their estimates. It is now as simple as updating a material line item in one location and being confident that it will update accurately throughout the estimate.
Join other smart contractors today who are using takeoff software to prepare their bids, and who are consistently winning jobs and staying ahead of the pack.
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