A construction-management simulator for the University of Houston capstone
Default setup
TargetDay 95contract time · $76.5M cost budget
Finish–
Invitation to Bid No. CC-01Bid week 1
From: Cypress Creek Gas Transmission, Owner To: Your company, invited bidder
20 miles of 24-inch gas pipeline and a compressor station
You are invited to bid. Win the job, build it, and get paid: plan the work, take off quantities, buy the long-lead equipment, put a price on it, then handle what goes wrong once construction starts. Every choice re-runs the whole project, and the status line above shows what it did.
Contract timeDay 95Day 0 is construction start
Liquidated damages$60k/dayFor each day late
Safe lift≤ 85%Of crane chart capacity
Your cost budget$76.5MYour company's limit, before overhead and profit
The owner, project, rates and prices are invented for teaching.
How the job unfolds
Plan the build. Choose the delivery method, crews and station methods. Your finish date appears.
Price it and bid. Take off quantities, buy six long-lead items, and build your estimate line by line. On bid day three rivals bid too, the lowest price sets the contract, and you learn what the job will really cost.
Award and lift plan. Plan the heaviest lift on the job before the compressor ships.
Build it. Things go wrong when your instructor says so. File claims on time, re-plan, and get paid.
At close-out, compare your plan with three other ways to build it and hand in your code.
How you are scored (40 points)
Finish date
12.5
Cost to build
12.5
Lift plan with no safety flag
5
Worksheet answers
10
Finish and cost are compared with other teams: matching the starter plan earns half, matching the best team earns all.
Terms used here
Contract time
The finish day in your contract (day 95). Approved claims can extend it.
Cost to build
What the job costs you: crews, materials, equipment, subcontracts, site overhead and any liquidated damages.
Cost budget
The cost to build your company expects ($76.5M).
Bid price
Cost to build plus home-office overhead, contingency, profit, and bond and insurance. Fixed once you submit it.
Contract sum
Your bid price plus approved change orders.
Margin
What the contract leaves you after the final cost.
Critical path
The chain of activities that sets the finish date. Anything else has float: days it can slip without moving the finish.
Liquidated damages
A fixed amount you pay the owner for each day you finish after the contract time.
Semester setup:Default setup
If your instructor posted a semester code, paste it here once. You can skip this if the badge at the top already shows this semester.
Bid week 1Decide how you will build it before you price anything. Your plan sets the finish date; the price comes in Phase 2.
Delivery method
Choose first. It sets how early you can order equipment, the markups in your bid, and who keeps savings or pays overruns.
Fixed by your submitted bid. Withdraw the bid in step 8 to change it.
The three contract forms
Under design-build the design fee is part of your price and your cost budget. Otherwise the owner pays the designer.
Construction plan
Set up the pipeline spread and the compressor station. The chart below shows the crews mile by mile; step 3 shows the whole schedule.
Pipeline
Construction spreadsTwo spreads split the line at MP 10, each with its own crews and mobilization.
Workspace widthRoom speeds up the pipe crews (100 ft full rate, 75 ft 90%, 50 ft 80%). Clearing, grading and clean-up cover more ground the wider you go, and you rent more land. Suburban miles stay at 50 ft.
Tie-in crewsThey build the bores, open cuts and river crossing behind the ditching crew, and must finish before the hydrotest. A crew is paid from its first crossing to its last.
Extra equipment+30% production for +45% day rate and +40% mobilization. It only helps the crew that sets the pace; a crew stuck behind a slower one waits, and waiting is paid.
Compressor station
Compressor skidsModular: built off site, set in 5 days once foundations are done and skids arrive. Stick-built: 50 days on site.
FoundationsDouble shift: 17 days instead of 25, at a higher day rate.
Station piping crewEnhanced: 14 days instead of 20.
Electrical and instrumentation crewEnhanced: 18 days instead of 25.
You choose the crane in step 9.
Pipeline crews, mile by mile
Each line is a crew moving down the route. Steeper is faster. A flat step is a crew waiting for the one ahead. The red line sets the pace: speed it up and the others can follow.
Schedule
Red bars set the finish date. To finish sooner, shorten a red activity or get its equipment earlier. Speeding up anything else only adds cost.
CriticalHas floatOff siteBefore day 0Needed on siteContract time
Pipeline crews follow each other mile by mile, at least one day apart.
Day 0
Pipeline progress by mile
Station site plan
Not startedIn progressComplete
Working today
Bid week 3The plan is set and bids are due at the end of this phase. Quantities first, then vendor quotes, then your price. You will not know the true cost until bid day; until then you have your own estimate.
Quantity takeoff
Your quantities become the purchase order. Order short and the gap arrives as a rush order at a 50% premium; order long and you pay for the waste.
0 of 13 entered
Data sheet
Route and crossings
Route length
20 miles = 105,600 ft
2-lane road bores
8 × 100 ft
Highway bores
2 × 250 ft
Railroad bores
2 × 150 ft
River HDD
1 × 1,200 ft
Creek open cuts (trenched)
3
Bored and HDD lengths are not trenched.
Line pipe
Size
24 in OD × 0.375 in wall
Joint length
40 ft
Allowance for bends and cut-offs
+2% of route length
Weight per foot
10.69 × (D − t) × t lb/ft
Truck limit
48,000 lb, whole joints only
Price · coating
Your bid (step 6) · $12/ft
Trench
Side slope
1.5H : 1V
Swell
20%
Spoil hauled off
Volume the pipe displaces · $18/loose CY
Station concrete
Pour
L × W × D (ft)
Compressor foundation block
32 × 14 × 6
Cooler pad
16 × 12 × 2.5
Scrubber pad
16 × 12 × 2.5
Building slab
60 × 40 × 8 in
Add 5% waste and round up to the next 0.5 CY. Trucks carry 10 CY. Rebar: 150 lb per net CY. Concrete $185/CY, rebar $1,450/ton.
Hydrotest and right-of-way
Hydrotest
Fill the whole line · 7.48 gal/cf · $0.02/gal
Permanent easement
50 ft wide
Temporary workspace
Your width − 50 ft (none at MP 12–14)
One acre
43,560 sf
Takeoff worksheet
The two lift quantities are in step 9.
Long-lead procurement
For each item pick a bid, delivery terms, whether to expedite, and the day you place the order.
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Delivery day = order day + submittal review + fabrication + shipping + the vendor's usual delay.
How timing and cost work
Day 0 is construction start, so negative days are before it. You cannot order before engineering releases the item; that day depends on your delivery method. A late item makes the activity that needs it wait. An early item costs 0.05% of its value per day to store and insure.
Bid tab
Line pipe is priced per ton. Delivered prices include freight. FOB origin: price + freight + 1% transit insurance, and you carry the shipping risk. Expediting cuts fabrication by 25% for 15% of the FOB price.
Bid tab worksheet
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For the bid and options you selected.
Cost data
By item
Cumulative cost over time
Crew and overhead costs spread over the days worked; materials land on delivery; liquidated damages land at the finish.
Bid daySealed bids are due. Work out your price below and submit it. The owner opens all four bids at once.
Bid estimate
Build your bid: split crew costs into labor and equipment, total the direct and indirect cost, choose your contingency and fee, and add the markups. Your last line is the price you submit. Leave liquidated damages out: they are a risk, not a bid item.
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Estimating data
Rates and markups
Craft wage (pipeline · station)
$46/h · $52/h
Shift
10 h/day
Labor burden
35% of wages
Home-office overhead
6% of direct + indirect
Contingency
–
Profit / fee
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Builder's risk · general liability
0.20% · 0.50% of subtotal with profit
Pipeline crews (your plan)
Station crews (your plan)
Other costs (from step 7)
Performance and payment bond (Exhibit A)
First $100,000
2.50%
Next $2,400,000
1.50%
Next $2,500,000
1.00%
Next $2,500,000
0.75%
Over $7,500,000
0.70%
Bond and insurance rates apply to the subtotal including profit.
Estimate worksheet
Bond and insurance
Submit your bid
Your bid is your own estimate. The owner awards at the lowest price: if a rival is lower, you get the job at their price. Bid too low and you lose money. Submitting fixes your price; from then on, events and re-planning change your cost and margin.
Notice to proceedThe job is yours. Before the compressor skid ships, the owner wants your plan for the heaviest lift on the job.
Critical lift
Pick a crane and pad to set the compressor skid. The lift may use at most 85% of chart capacity at the pad's radius, and the boom must clear the power line. A failed lift plan loses the 5 safety points.
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CraneSkid plus rigging: 94 t.
Crane padDistance to the compressor foundation. Pad 4 is soft ground and needs crane mats.
Rigging
Skid · spreader bar · slings · hook block
88 · 3.5 · 0.5 · 2.0 t
Load charts (tons)
Interpolate in a straight line between rows.
Site plan at the lift
Lift worksheet
Day 0Construction starts. Your instructor releases what happens next as event codes. Each one is a notice: decide who carries the risk and answer it in time.
Events
Enter each code your instructor releases. Then decide who carries the risk, file a claim below, and re-plan to recover.
Claims
Classify each event, cite the contract clause, give your notice day, and ask for the time and money you are owed. The owner grants up to what a time impact analysis of your schedule supports.
Notice is due within 14 days of the event: SC-2 shortens the 21 days in GC 10.1, and Supplementary Conditions take precedence (SC-1).
Day 60Your second pay application is due, and the owner's lawyer has found three conflicts in the contract documents.
Pay application and outcome
Prepare pay application #2, settle three conflicts in the contract documents, and work out your margin.
Pay application #2 (day 60)
Schedule of values from your estimate, markups spread over the work lines. Fill the G703 and G702 lines in the worksheet below.
Contract outcome
Contract documents
Order of precedence (SC-1): Agreement, Supplementary Conditions, General Conditions, Specifications, Drawings.
Notice of claims
GC 10.1: 21 days · SC-2: 14 days
Retainage (AG-7)
10% up to half the contract sum, then 5%
Retainage (SC-3)
5% throughout
Liquidated damages (AG-5)
$60,000 per day late
Pay applications (AG-7)
Day 30 and day 60
Contract worksheet
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Final acceptanceThe station is in service. Look back: how does your plan compare with three other ways to build it?
Compare scenarios
Three alternative plans, run with your takeoff, delivery method and events. Recommend one to the owner, then try to beat it.
Finish day and cost to build
Lower left is better. The shaded box is on time and within the cost budget.
For your report
Why is the lowest first-cost scenario not the cheapest job?
Rank the three for the owner. Do you value an earlier finish or a lower cost, and why?
After the events, which scenario holds up best?
Build a plan that scores higher than all three.
Loading a scenario replaces your plan choices (your takeoff, bid and events stay). Copy your code in step 13 first if you want to return to your plan.
Points out of 30: finish and cost against the starter plan and the best of these four, plus the lift plan. Worksheets are not included.
Project log
Every change you made in this browser and what it did to the finish and the cost. Use it to tell the story of your plan in your report.
Submit your plan
Paste the code into your phase submittal. It holds your choices only; results are recalculated, so it cannot be edited for a better score.
Load a saved plan
Rank teams (instructor)
One code per line. Finish 12.5 and cost 12.5 (starter plan with the same events earns half, best team earns all), lift plan 5, worksheets 10.
Instructor settings
Change the project inputs for a new semester so last term's answers no longer work. Preview, then save. Saving shares the setup with every student who opens this page; the semester code is a backup you can post on Canvas.
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Phase 4 events
Leave a code blank to keep it. Codes are stored scrambled, so write new ones down before saving. Notice is always due 14 days after the event (SC-2).