New York State Thruway Authority Guidelines for Using Estimator

This document contains guidelines for using Estimator 2.4a on New York State Thruway Authority projects. It is a supplement to the generic Software User’s Guide to address New York State Thruway Authority specific use of the product. The numbering convention used in this document corresponds to the convention used in the Software User’s Guide.

2.2.4 - Getting Estimator Support - Consultants should obtain support from the developer of Estimator, InfoTech Inc, using the support request feature (see 2.2.3 Generating a Support Request). However, support for New York State Thruway Authority staff will be provided through the Department of Information Technology Help Desk.

2.3.1 Setting Preferences

Roll Up Item Quantity for Bid History Prices – The New York State Thruway Authority 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 practices.

Note: As the initial New York State Thruway Authority catalog does not contain item bid history, this setting is not critical at this point. However, as the catalog will eventually contain item bid history data once enough projects have been processed in the system, it will become critical in the future.

3.1.3 Understanding the Difference between Estimate Groups and Catalogs – For
New York State Thruway Authority projects, Groups shall be used to combine items into the various Fiscal Shares required for the contract. Additional information regarding Groups can be found in section 5.2 of the Estimator User’s Guide titled “The Groups and All Items Tabs”.

4.2 Updating your Catalogs - The New York State Thruway Authority configuration does not currently support the “Check for Catalog Updates…” command under the Tools menu.

4.4.1 Saving Estimates / Using valid file names - The name of a New York State Thruway Authority Estimator file should be based on the first six characters of the New York State Thruway Authority PIN. As the user is instructed to enter these characters in the estimate header’s Estimate ID field, the New York State Thruway Authority has configured Estimator to automatically read that field and display it as the default file name the first time the estimate is saved. The user should accept this default value.

4.6 Verifying an Estimate – Verifying an estimate does not flag the following:

• Lump sum quantities that do not equal 1.
• Dollar and Cent Unit Item prices not equal to $1.00.
• The same items in different groups and having differing unit prices.
• Data in fields that are not used by New York State Thruway Authority. The following fields should not contain any data:
  • Item Level Supplemental Description
  • Group / Engineering Share level Alternate Code

5.1 Working with the Estimate Header

ESTIMATE ID – The Estimate ID for estimates included in the “Plans, Specification and Estimate” (PS&E) submission shall be the first six characters of the New York State Thruway Authority PIN.

ESTIMATE DESCRIPTION - The estimate description field shall begin with the New York State Thruway Authority Letting Number, commonly known as the TA Number (e.g. TAS 07-65), followed by the Short Description from the Capital Program Management System (e.g. I-90 (Exit 20): Toll Plaza Pavement Rehabilitation). The New York State Thruway Authority Letting Number should be formatted as follows:

• The letters TA, immediately followed by district code (i.e. TAA, TAB, TAN, TAS)
• A blank space
• The two digit year in which the project will be let
• A dash
• A number sequence roughly corresponding to the order in which the project will be let (1 or 2 digits)
• If assigned, an additional project descriptor of 1 or 2 characters

The entire description should be limited to 60 characters to ensure that all information is passed to Trns*Port PES (e.g. TAS 07-65, I-90 (Exit 20): Toll Plaza Pavement Rehabilitation).

SPEC. YEAR - The 95 spec. year will be used for all metric contracts. The 95 spec. year item catalog includes approved 2006 New York State Department of Transportation standard specification book items and New York State Department of Transportation special specification items also approved for use at New York State Thruway Authority, as well as approved New York State Thruway Authority special specification items.

BASE DATE - For New York State Thruway Authority projects the “Base Date” shall mean the “Letting Date”.

WORK TYPES – The New York State Thruway Authority work type codes with descriptions are provided in Appendix A.

HIGHWAY TYPE – While Highway types do not currently affect the prices in Estimator, it is anticipated that they will be used to refine bid history average prices in the future. The code appropriate for the majority of the project should be selected. The New York State Thruway Authority highway type codes with descriptions are provided in Appendix A.

URBAN / RURAL TYPE - While Urban / Rural types do not currently affect the prices in Estimator, it is anticipated that they will be used to refine bid history average prices in the future. The code appropriate for the majority of the project should be selected. The New York State Thruway Authority urban/rural type codes with descriptions are provided in Appendix A.

SEASON – The code selected should reflect when construction on the contract will begin in full (i.e. more than just prep work such as clearing and grubbing). The New York State Thruway Authority season codes with descriptions are provided in Appendix A.

COUNTY - The County selected should be the county in which the majority of the work will be performed. Also included are codes for each Thruway Division, which should be used if the project covers an entire Division (e.g. Albany Division Bridge Where and When contract). The County code is used in Estimator to assign the project to a market area for pricing, as prices will vary by market area. It is currently anticipated that New York State Thruway Authority market areas will be based upon Division boundaries, once enough projects have been processed to calculate historical bid price statistics. The New York State Thruway Authority county codes with descriptions are provided in Appendix A.

CONTINGENCY PERCENT and MOBILIZATION - The Estimator Contingency Percent field takes the total of all the items in the estimate and adds a percentage which appears as the 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 as close to zero as possible.

The contingency may be used on New York State Thruway Authority projects to calculate initial mobilization costs. However, in the final estimate the appropriate mobilization items and prices should be included in each group and the contingency set to zero.

5.1.3 Using the Estimate as a Template - While a user can create a template, most do not have rights to move it into the Templates folder for others to access. A user should instead work with one of the Estimator System Administrators to have a template posted for general use.

5.1.4 Setting the Estimate’s Options - To ensure that all estimates are rounded to the same level of accuracy, the default “Estimate Options” settings shown below shall be used for all Estimates.

Only Trns*Port items and codes allowed – This box shall remain unchecked for all estimates to allow users to add items that are not in the New York State Thruway Authority item catalog yet. However, all the items should be approved and in the New York State Thruway Authority catalog before the final estimate is submitted as part of the “Plans, Specification and Estimate” (PS&E) submission.

5.2 The Groups and All Items Tabs - For New York State Thruway Authority projects, Groups shall be used to sort items into the various Fiscal Shares required for the contract.

Group Number – Groups shall be numbered consecutively in increments of 1 beginning with 0001.

Alternate Group Code – Current New York State Thruway Authority 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 as part of the “Plans, Specification and Estimate” (PS&E) submission.

Group Description – This description will be provided by the Office of Capital Program Management. It will be a brief description of the fiscal share and the work to be performed under that share. 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.
Dollar and Cents Items – The unit price used for each DC unit item in a group 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.

Quantities
Lump Sum Item Quantities - The quantity used for each lump sum item in a 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 certain 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 level allowed for any item shall be one hundredth
of a unit.
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 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.

Supplemental Description – New York State Thruway Authority business processes currently require that the Item level Supplemental Description field within Estimator be left blank.

5.4 Adding Items to Your Estimate – Users will normally only select items from the New York State Thruway Authority item catalog using the drop down menus. However, users can manually enter an item number, which has yet to be approved, as a placeholder. However, all placeholders must be replaced by items that have been approved and in the New York State Thruway Authority catalog before the final estimate is submitted as part of the “Plans, Specifications and Estimate” (PS&E) submission.

5.7.2 Working with Reference Prices – The New York State Thruway Authority has populated the Reference Price catalog with Dollar and Cents items, as their unit prices should always be $1.00. This catalog Reference Price will be automatically applied if a user adds that item to an estimate.

5.7.3 Working with Bid Histories – The New York State Thruway Authority catalog will not have bid history data until enough projects have been processed in the Trns*port system. It is currently planned that the bid history catalog will be updated on a semi-annual basis. Ultimately the bid history catalog shall maintain the most recent 2 to 3 years of information on any item.

6.1 Estimate Extra Data – This option is not currently used by the New York State Thruway Authority.

6.3 Adding Non-Standard Items to the Estimate – Users will normally only select items from the New York State Thruway Authority item catalog using the drop down menus. However, users can manually enter an item number, which has yet to be approved, as a placeholder. However, all placeholders must be replaced by items that have been approved and in the New York State Thruway Authority catalog before the final estimate is submitted as part of the “Plans, Specification and Estimate” (PS&E) submission.

7 Working with Catalogs and Code Tables – Not all the catalogs will be used initially by the New York State Thruway Authority. Use of the Labor, Material, Equipment and Cost Sheet Catalogs may be phased in over time.

7.2 The Standard Item Catalog - The 95 spec. year item catalog includes approved 2006 New York State Department of Transportation standard specification book items and New York State Department of Transportation special specification items also approved for use at New York State Thruway Authority, as well as New York State Thruway Authority approved special specification items. The item catalog will be updated on a regular basis to add recently approved specifications. Disapproved items will be removed in the first catalog update after the item’s disapproval date. Users will normally only select items from the New York State Thruway Authority item catalog using the drop down menus. However, they can manually enter an item number, which has yet to be approved, as a placeholder until the item is approved by the New York State Thruway Authority and the item catalog subsequently updated. However, all placeholders must be replaced by items that have been approved and in the New York State Thruway Authority catalog before the final estimate is submitted as part of the “Plans, Specification and Estimate” (PS&E) submission.

Required Supplemental Description Indicator – This indicator should not be checked, as the New York State Thruway Authority does not currently use the Item Level Supplemental Description field.

7.3.2 Bid History Catalog – The New York State Thruway Authority catalog will not have bid history data until enough projects have been processed in the Trns*port system. It is currently planned that the bid history catalog will be updated on a semi-annual basis. Ultimately the bid history catalog shall maintain the most recent 2 to 3 years of information on any item.

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 may be added over time.

APPENDIX A