The Big Picture
The purpose of the portfolio assignment is to perform the quantity takeoff and cost estimating on the entire sample and simplified commercial building located in West Lafayette, IN (the project location stays the same for all the portfolio milestones). Throughout this course, you will perform the takeoff and cost estimating of this building’s different major parts and components. This effort will be conducted in multiple milestones and by gradually completing each milestone’s tasks, you will end up with a full quantity takeoff and cost estimation for a real size sample building. This will be your semi-realistic construction cost estimating effort. Good luck and enjoy!
Overview
The purpose of this portfolio milestone is to become familiar with the major components of earthwork in construction projects, how to perform quantity takeoff and cost estimating, and how to calculate the optimum number of trucks and loaders.
Mastery of these concepts will help you successfully quantify the earthwork job in construction projects based on soil volume and its stats, the number of required machinery, and the cost associated with the work.
Instructions
Look at the portfolio project drawings, specifically sheets number 101 and 102. Find out the area that needs to be excavated for the building to have its foundations placed. Note the dimensions of the area, i.e., width, length, and depth.
Calculate the soil volume that should be excavated. Assume the following:
The project is located in West Lafayette, Indiana
This applies to all the portfolio milestone submissions moving forward.
A ¾ CY power shovel is loading 8 CY dump trucks.
The heaped capacity will make up for the swelling. (The heaped capacity of the truck is equivalent to 8 BCY.)
Trucks then haul the soil a distance of 1 mile with an average speed of 20 mph
A wait time of 20 minutes
Now perform calculations to find the following items:
Calculate the total volume of excavation.
The optimum number of trucks (i.e., the number of trucks that gives you a minimum $/CY)
The duration it takes to excavate the area for the building foundation and underground garage considering the number of construction machinery available.
The number of shovels and trucks that should be used if we are asked to finish this excavation job in 5 business days.
The total direct cost
The total cost including overhead and profit]
Components
A properly generated MS Excel spreadsheet that includes all the calculations and formulas needed to perform the quantity takeoff and cost estimating.
The formulas in the MS Excel spreadsheet should be embedded in the file and all the values, except those that are given on the problem statement, should be calculated using those formulas.
Your MS Excel spreadsheet should include the RSMeans line and unit costs provided in the link below.
Review the RSMeans spreadsheets to find the line item and unit costs necessary to perform the calculations.
If you want to try the RSMeans online tool, use this link.
https://www.rsmeansonline.com/
