NYSDOT SUPPLEMENTAL GUIDANCE TO THE ESTIMATOR …

NYSDOT SUPPLEMENTAL GUIDANCE TO THE

ESTIMATOR USER’S GUIDE

December 2020 1 of 10

This document contains guidelines for using Estimator Version 2.16b on NYSDOT projects. It

is a supplement to the Software User’s Guide to address NYSDOT-specific use of the product.

The section numbering used in this document corresponds to that used in the User’s Guide.

2.2.3 Generating a Support Request – The Generate Support Request Feature in Estimator

shall be used by Consultants working for NYSDOT. Support for NYSDOT staff will be

provided through the Office of Information Technology Services (ITS)- Help Desk.

2.3.1 Setting Preferences

Roll Up Item Quantity for Bid History Prices – NYSDOT 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 policy.

URL Tabs for Catalog Selection – NYSDOT will be using a catalog containing US customary

items located at “http://ddspapp/cgi-bin”, for inside NYSDOT network users and

https://www.dot.ny.gov/estimator/nysdote.cat for the external users. The metric catalog was

abandoned in 2017, but still available (not maintained) at

https://www.dot.ny.gov/estimator/nysdot.cat

See Section 4.3 of these guidelines for opening or switching between catalogs.

https://www.dot.ny.gov/estimator/nysdote.cat

https://www.nysdot.gov/estimator/nysdot.cat


3.1.3 Understanding the Difference Between Estimate Groups and Catalogs – For

NYSDOT projects, Groups shall be used to combine items into the various Engineering Shares

required for the contract. Refer to the Estimate section in Chapter 21 of the Highway Design

Manual for additional information regarding Engineering Shares. Additional information

regarding Groups can be found in section 5.2 of the Estimator User’s Guide titled “The Groups

and All Items Tabs”.

4.3 Opening an Estimate or Current Catalog

Before creating or modifying an existing estimate, users should make certain that the

corresponding catalog is loaded prior to opening an estimate. This will become apparent when

someone attempts to add an item to an estimate from the item bid history catalog and the items

appear grayed and crossed out. Opening an estimate from ProjectWise will cause this to

happen as well if the corresponding catalog is not loaded. Only those items where the units of

measurement are neutral in either catalog will be darkened (i.e. Each, CD, LS, etc.).

To ascertain that the proper catalog is loaded:

1. Open Estimator and log in using your username and password.

Select “Open a Catalog” from the “Catalog Tools” drop down screen.


The header information for the USC catalog is named nysdote.cat with a spec year as

08. If the catalog is correct, you can then open or create another estimate.

To change the catalog:

2. First, close any estimate you have opened.

3. Select “Global Options” from the “Other Tools” drop down screen to access the

“Estimator Options” screen.

From the “Estimator Options” screen select the “URLs” tab and simply replace the

Catalog path with the ones provided above in section 2.3.1, hit Apply and Close. This

will load the appropriate catalog.

Opening an Estimate File


Aside from the usual procedure to opening a file by selecting Open from the File menu and

selecting an estimate, a user may experience having read only access from opening an existing

file from Project Wise or from another source. To change this file to write accessibility, the

user should open the file. If it indicates “read only” as shown below then go to the Edit menu

and select Estimate Users, select your own name and click OK.

The read only status will disappear and the user should be able to write to the file through the

Estimator program.

4.4.1 Saving Estimates / Using valid file names

The file naming convention for NYSDOT projects is included in Appendix 14 of the Project

Development Manual.

4.5.11 Select Customized Reports – Estimator uses Crystal Reports® to produce a quality

printout of your estimate. NYSDOT has developed several custom reports to aid the user in

producing a more accurate estimate and to enhance the reporting capabilities.

For estimates prepared by NYSDOT employees, the custom reports are available in a shared

directory that is accessible from within the Estimating software. For estimates prepared by

Consultants, the custom reports are available for download at the NYSDOT Estimator web

page.

To access these new reports from Estimator, select File > Print Preview to display the Estimate

Print Options Screen. In the “Select Customized Report” section scroll down to the desired

custom report and then select OK.

4.6 Verifying an Estimate – Verifying an estimate will not detect the following:

• PIN Approved Special Specification Items – All items that require PIN approval are

available for selection in the Estimator Standard Item Catalog. The verification process will

not identify which items require project specific approval. Refer to the Specifications

section in chapter 21 of the HDM for additional information regarding the approval

process.

• Lump sum quantities that do not equal 1.00 will not be identified.

• Dollar and Cent Unit Item prices not equal to $1.00 will not be identified.

• Items that require the same unit price in each group will not be identified.

• Data included in fields that are not used by NYSDOT will not be identified. The following

fields shall not contain any data:

o Item Level Supplemental Description

o Group / Engineering Share Level Alternate Code

5.1 Working with the Estimate Header

ESTIMATE ID – The Estimate ID for estimates submitted for PS&E are generally the first six

digits of the NYSDOT PIN without the decimal point. Any letters included in the PIN shall be

entered as uppercase.


ESTIMATE DESCRIPTION - The estimate description field should include a brief

description of the project. This description is used to generate the newspaper advertisement for

the project; therefore, it must be descriptive enough to be informative to prospective bidders.

Factors such as work type (Asphalt concrete resurfacing, bridge replacement, bridge

rehabilitation, pavement marking, bridge painting, landscape planting, traffic signal installation

and/or repair, etc.) should be mentioned first along with the town(s) and/or village(s) and route

numbers where the work is to occur. This field should be limited to 120 characters to ensure

that all information is passed to AASHTOWare Project PreConstruction.

BASE DATE - For NYSDOT projects, the “Base Date” shall mean the “Letting Date”.

WORK TYPES - NYSDOT work type codes with descriptions and examples are provided in

APPENDIX A.

LONGITUDE & LATITUDE OF MIDPOINT - These values could be entered in Estimator

or after PES upload at the discretion of the NYSDOT Regional offices. When entering the

values, the Latitude and Longitude coordinates should be the approximate midpoint of the

project. For Region wide or multi-county projects, a point in the county where most of the

work is anticipated should be chosen.

There are several methods available to determine the coordinates of the midpoint of a project

including the use of GIS software, CADD software, Google Earth or Google Maps.

DISTRICT - For NYSDOT projects, the “District” shall mean “Regional Office”. e.g. 01.

The two-digit Region number must be used to avoid errors uploading estimates into

AASHTOWare Project PreConstruction.

FEDERAL / STATE PROJECT NUMBER - For NYSDOT, this field will be left blank in

Estimator.

HIGHWAY TYPE - Highway types do not affect the prices in Estimator. The Highway type

should be “undefined”.

URBAN / RURAL TYPE - Urban / Rural Type does not affect the prices in Estimator. The

Urban / Rural type should be “undefined”.

SEASON – The following seasons have been established for NYSDOT contracts.

Winter - contracts let during the winter (12/20 <letting date ≤ 03/21)

Spring - contracts let during the spring (03/21 < letting date ≤06/21)

Summer - contracts let during the summer (06/21< letting date ≤ 09/21)

Fall - contracts let during the fall (09/21 <letting date ≤ 12/22)

COUNTY - The County selected should be the County in which the largest portion of the

work will be performed. The County is used in Estimator to assign the project to a market area

for pricing. Prices will vary by market area. Market areas can be the Regional Office

boundaries or other boundaries established for the specific catalog. Unless otherwise indicated

in the catalog description, Regional Office boundaries will be used to define market area.


CONTINGENCY PERCENT and MOBILIZATION - The Estimator Contingency Percent

field takes the total of the items in the estimate and adds a percentage which appears as the

job/estimate total. The contingency is used to factor in risk or unknowns not considered that

might affect the estimate. As you approach a final estimate, the contingency should drop as

close to zero as possible.

As a result of a NYSDOT custom process for calculating mobilization in AASHTOWare

Project PreConstruction, the contingency field in Estimator may be used for the mobilization

amount for each project. There are two options available for including mobilization in an

estimate.

Option 1 - Include the mobilization item and amounts in each group. Include zero percent for

contingency.

Option 2 – Include the mobilization amount for the whole contract as contingency. Omit the

mobilization items and amounts from each group. (Although this option will cause a warning

message when you verify the estimate, the correct amounts for mobilization will be included in

the estimate after the data is uploaded to AASHTOWare Project PreConstruction.)

5.1.4 Setting the Estimate’s Options

To ensure that all estimates are rounded to the same level of accuracy and to ensure

compatibility with other NYSDOT software applications, the default “Estimate Options”

settings shown below shall be used for all Estimates.

Only AASHTOWare Project PreConstruction items and codes allowed – This box shall

remain unchecked for all estimates to maintain a rounding level that is compatible with other

NYSDOT software applications. To ensure that only approved AASHTOWare Project


PreConstruction items are used in the Estimate; all items shall be selected from the

dropdown menus. Any items entered manually may drop out of the estimate during the

AASHTOWare Project PreConstruction upload process.

5.1.5 Web Services Tab

AASHTOWare Estimator includes a feature that allows the System Manager to establish links

between estimate items and web services. These services have been set up for NYSDOT in-

house users to link pay item numbers within Estimator to information available in the Pay Item

Catalog web application. https://www.dot.ny.gov/pic

This feature is included at the item level in the Standard Item Catalog and within a project

estimate.

To access this feature in the Standard Item Catalog, select Catalog Tools, Show Open Catalog

and select an item in the display. Click on the Pay Item Catalog tab to load the item

information.

To access this feature in a project estimate, select an item within an Engineering Share then

click on the Pay Item Catalog tab to load the item information.

After the item information is loaded, the user can review the item information including special

specification files or modify the bid history date and quantity filters to refine the displayed

information. An additional feature included at the estimate item level is the ability to save the

displayed information with the estimate.

Screen shots showing the Pay Item Catalog tab and displayed information are included below.

5.2 The Groups and All Items Tabs - For NYSDOT projects, Groups shall be used to

combine items into the various Engineering Shares required for the contract. Refer to the

https://www.dot.ny.gov/pic


Engineer's Estimate Section in Chapter 21 of the Highway Design Manual for additional

information regarding Engineering Shares.

Group Number – Groups, or Engineering Shares, shall be numbered consecutively in

increments of 1 beginning with 0001.

Supplemental Group Number – Current NYSDOT business processes do not support the use

of the Supplemental Group field at the group level. This field shall be blank for all estimates

submitted for PS&E.

Alternate Group Code – Current NYSDOT 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 for

PS&E.

Group Description – The group description field should include a description of the work

included in the Engineering Share. This can be a description of a Highway, Bridge, Utility or

Funding Source. When a separate Engineering Share is required for a Bridge in accordance

with the Engineer's Estimate Section in Chapter 21 of the Highway Design Manual, the Bridge

Identification Number (BIN) must be included in the description, i.e., BIN 1234567 - I123

over Route XX. 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/engineering share.

Dollar and Cents Items – The unit price used for all DC unit items in each

group/engineering share 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/engineering share.

Quantities

Lump Sum Item Quantities - The quantity used for all lump sum items in each 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 reports generated using

AASHTOWare Project PreConstruction 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 accuracy allowed for any item shall be one hundredth

of a unit.

https://www.dot.ny.gov/portal/page/portal/divisions/engineering/design/dqab/hdm

https://www.dot.ny.gov/portal/page/portal/divisions/engineering/design/dqab/hdm


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. Refer to Engineer's Estimate Section in Chapter 21 of the Highway Design Manual for

additional information regarding alternate bid items.

Supplemental Description - NYSDOT business processes currently require that the Item level

Supplemental Description field within Estimator be left blank.

5.4 Adding Items to Your Estimate - Only items that appear in the Standard Item Catalog

shall be used in NYSDOT estimates. Refer to Chapter 21 of the Highway Design Manual for

Special Specification Review and Approval procedures.

6.3 Adding Non-Standard Items to the Estimate – Only items that appear in the Standard

Item Catalog shall be used in NYSDOT estimates. Refer to Chapter 21 of the Highway Design

Manual for Special Specification Review and Approval procedures.

Temporary Lump Sum Items - Temporary lump sum items have been included in the

Standard Item Catalog and can be used for items that have not yet been approved for use. The

temporary item numbers are 999.01 to 999.05.

7. Working with Catalogs and Code Tables - All catalogs will not be used by NYSDOT.

Use of the Labor, Material, Equipment and Cost Sheet Catalogs will be phased in over time.

7.2 The Standard Item Catalog - The Standard Item Catalog includes either the approved

2006 or 2008 standard specification book and general and PIN-approved special specification

items. The item catalogs will be updated on a regular basis to include recently approved

specifications. Disapproved items will be removed from the appropriate catalog on the date of

the first catalog update after the disapproval date. The date of the item catalog update will be

included in the catalog description. To ensure that only approved items are included in an

estimate, all items shall be selected from the dropdown menus. If an approved item is not

found in the appropriate Standard Item Catalog, contact the Regional or Program area Special

Specification Coordinator.

Required Supplemental Description Indicator – NYSDOT does not currently use the Item

level Supplemental Description field.


7.3.2 Bid History Catalog - The bid history catalog will be updated on a quarterly basis.

Initially, the bid history catalog will include 2 years of information. The catalog description

will include the 2-year period used to generate the bid history catalog. Refer to APPENDICES

B and C for an overview of information included in the bid history catalog.

7.3.3 Reference Prices Catalog - The Reference Prices Catalog includes all items with units

of measure = Dollars and Cents (DC). Additional fixed price items will be added over time.

8. Importing/Exporting from Estimator - Excel spreadsheets can be one of many formats

that can be exported or imported from Estimator. Minor manual entries will need to be made to

the project files that are imported from Excel:

1. Enter the group description(s) in the header area.

2. Click on the group names (shares) in the tree area to properly re-sequence the groups.

3. Enter the name of the Estimate ID in the header area.

APPENDIX A

NYSDOT CONTRACT

WORK TYPES

CONTRACT CONTRACTWORK TYPE WORK TYPECODE DESCRIPTION EXAMPLESASPH ASPHALT: PRIMARILY ASPHALT WORK ASPHALT: HIGHWAY RECONSTRUCTION

TYPICALLY OVER 40% ASPHALT ITEM DOLLARS, ASPHALT: HIGHWAY RESURFACING

NO MAJOR BRIDGE WORK

BLDG BUILDINGS BUILDINGS

BUILDING DEMOLITION

REST AREAS

RESIDENCIES , SUB-RESIDENCIES

TRAFFIC CONTROL CENTERS (BLDGS.)

WICK'S LAW BLDG.CONTRACTS

BLDG., SITE WORK

HVAC, PLUMBING, ELECTRIC

BRCL BRIDGE CLEANING BRIDGE CLEANING

BRIDGE WASHING

BRPT BRIDGE PAINTING BRIDGE PAINTING OR CLEANING & PAINTING

CONC CONCRETE: PRIMARILY PORTLAND CEMENT CONCRETE

CONCRETE WORK PCC PAVEMENT

CRKJ CRACKS & JOINTS CRACK SEALING

JOINT REPAIR

JOINT SEALING

DRNG DRAINAGE DRAINAGE

CATCH BASINS

CULVERTS

DITCH CLEANING

ERTH EARTHWORK EARTHWORK

EXCAVATIONS

GRADING

RECHARGE BASIN CONSTRUCTION

SLOPE STABILIZATION

FENC FENCING FENCES

GATES

NOISE BARRIERS

GDRL GUIDE RAIL GUIDE RAILS

GENC GENERAL CONSTRUCTION: INTERCHANGE CONSTRUCTION

PROJECTS WITH A MIX OF BRIDGE AND HIGHWAY MAJOR RECONSTRUCRION WORK

WORK, TYPICALLY 20% OR MORE INDIVIDUALLY

ALLOCATED TO:

PAVING (ASPHALT OR CONCRETE),

AND EARTHWORK (&/OR DRAINAGE)

AND STRUCTURES

HMCL HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE & CLEANING HIGHWAY CLEANING

HIGHWAY SWEEPING

LITTER REMOVAL

GRAFFITI REMOVAL

PAVEMENT CLEANING

PAVEMENT SWEEPING

MOWING

ITS INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS

LSCP LANDSCAPING HERBICIDE APPLICATION

LANDSCAPING

TREE &/OR SHRUB TRIMMING &/OR REMOVAL

VEGETATION ENCROACHMENT

10/27/2008 1 of 2

APPENDIX A

NYSDOT CONTRACT

WORK TYPES

CONTRACT CONTRACTWORK TYPE WORK TYPECODE DESCRIPTION EXAMPLESMISC MISCELLANEOUS BIKEPATHS, BIKEWAYS

SIDEWALKS, WALKWAYS, TRAILS

CURBS

SUBSURFACE EXPLORATIONS

SOIL BORINGS

M&PT FOR BRIDGE INSPECTIONS

PVMK PAVEMENT MARKING PAVEMENT MARKING

SGLT SIGNALS & LIGHTING SIGNAL REQUIREMENT CONTRACTS

SIGNALS

LIGHTING

SIGN SIGNS SIGNS, OVERHEAD SIGN STRUCTURES

STRS STRUCTURES BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION

MAJORITY OF CONTRACT WORK IS BRIDGE RELATED BRIDGE REHABILITATION

WITH INCIDENTAL APPROACH WORK

WWSB WHERE & WHEN / STAND-BY EMERGENCY STANDBY

EMERGENCY WHERE AND WHEN

WORK ORDER CONTRACTS

10/27/2008 2 of 2

1/20/2021 1 of 2

APPENDIX B

Overview of the Bid History Catalog – Average Item Prices

This section contains an overview of the information contained in the Bid History Catalog

when viewing the average item price screen.

Model Number - All unit prices are calculated using a combination of contract information

such as quantity level, season, work type and area. Each model number represents a different

combination of contract information used to calculate the unit price. Model 0 calculates the

statewide average price for all contract occurrences. The other 15 models use various

combinations of contract data to calculate unit prices. The data considered in each model is

displayed in the Bid History Catalog view for each item. An * indicates that all data in the

category was used in the calculation.

Quantity Level - Each item occurrence is assigned a quantity level using the following quantity

level definitions:

1 = Very Low, If the quantity level is 1, only the contracts that include item quantities

in the lowest percentile range (i.e. 5th < quantity < 25th) are used to calculate the

corresponding average price.

2 = Low, If the quantity level is 2, only the contracts that include item quantities in the

second percentile range (i.e. 25th <= quantity < 50th) are used to calculate the


3 = High, If the quantity level is 3, only the contracts that include item quantities in the

third percentile range (i.e. 50th <= quantity < 75th) are used to calculate the


4 = Very High, If the quantity level is 4, only the contracts that include item quantities

in the highest percentile range (i.e. 75th <= quantity < 95th) are used to calculate the

corresponding average price

* = All If the quantity level is *, all contracts that include valid item quantities (i.e.

quantity level 1, 2, 3, or 4) are used to calculate the corresponding average price.

All item quantity outliers (i.e. quantity <= 5th or quantity >= 95th) are automatically

excluded from the analysis.

Area - Regional Office designation. Area 1 indicates that only contracts let in Region 1 were

used to calculate the average unit prices.

1/20/2021 2 of 2

Season - Each item occurrence is assigned a season based on the letting date. Only the

contracts let during the corresponding season are used to calculate the average price.





Highway Type - Not currently used to calculate prices.

Urban/Rural - Not currently used to calculate prices.

Work Type - Work Type used to calculate the average unit price.

Unit Price - Average unit price calculated by the model. All item price outliers (i.e. price >

three standard deviations from the mean) are automatically excluded from the analysis before

the average price is calculated.

Number of Observations - Number of bids used to calculate the average unit price. NYSDOT

currently uses the three low bids from each contract. If the number of observations is 3, this

indicates that the calculation was based on the three low bids from one contract occurrence.

1/20/2021 1 of 2

APPENDIX C

Overview of the Bid History Catalog & Estimate Bid History Graph

for

Regression Item Prices

This section contains an overview of the information contained in the Bid History Catalog

when viewing the regression item price screen and in viewing the bid history graph when

an estimate is generated.

Model Number - Historical item price regression models are created from specific price

qualifiers and variables. Combinations of variables are used to create eight different regression

models and are shown in table 3-3 of the Estimators Users Guide. The variables include:

Quantity, Work Type, Area and Season. Model 1 includes a regression based on all contract

occurrences statewide regardless of the variables. The data considered in each model is

displayed in the Bid History Catalog view and for certain items in an estimate by selecting the

regression tab.

Quantity Level - Each item occurrence is assigned a quantity level using the following quantity

level definitions:

1 = Very Low, If the quantity level is 1, only the contracts that include item quantities

in the lowest percentile range (i.e. 5th < quantity < 25th) are used to calculate the

corresponding regression data.

2 = Low, If the quantity level is 2, only the contracts that include item quantities in the

second percentile range (i.e. 25th <= quantity < 50th) are used to calculate the


3 = High, If the quantity level is 3, only the contracts that include item quantities in the

third percentile range (i.e. 50th <= quantity < 75th) are used to calculate the


4 = Very High, If the quantity level is 4, only the contracts that include item quantities

in the highest percentile range (i.e. 75th <= quantity < 95th) are used to calculate the


* = All If the quantity level is *, all contracts that include valid item quantities (i.e.

quantity level 1, 2, 3, or 4) are used to calculate the corresponding regression data.

All item quantity outliers (i.e. quantity <= 5th or quantity >= 95th) are automatically

excluded from the analysis.

1/20/2021 2 of 2

Area - Regional Office designation. Area 1 indicates that only contracts let in Region 1 were

used to calculate the regression unit prices.

Season - Each item occurrence is assigned a season based on the letting date. Only the

contracts let during the corresponding season are used to calculate the regression data.





Highway Type - Not currently used to calculate prices.

Urban/Rural - Not currently used to calculate prices.

Work Type - Work Type used to calculate the regression unit prices.

Unit Price - Regression unit prices are calculated by the model. The model that has the lowest

Root Mean Square (RMS) for the specified variables will be chosen by the program and

displayed in the item header and in the graph when generating an estimate. A specified percent

of regression model outliers are automatically excluded from the analysis before the RMS is

calculated. A 0.2 level of improvement must be made over the base model before keeping a

regression model to generate unit prices. Models that are out of a range of three (3) standard

deviations compared to the average prices will be excluded. Regressions with positive quantity

coefficients (prices increases as quantity increases) will also be excluded.

Number of Observations - NYSDOT currently uses 30 as the minimum number of

observations (bids) used to calculate the RMS for each model. Not more than the three lowest

bids (overall) from each contract are counted as observations towards anyone item of work.

Models with less than 30 observations, after 10% regression model outliers have been

removed, will be excluded from the program.

Documents

NYSDOT SUPPLEMENTAL GUIDANCE TO THE ESTIMATOR …