ECVL 420

Construction Engineering and Management

Estimating Project
Invitation to Tender
1. Invitation:
You have been invited as a contractor to develop and submit a bid for the construction
of a custom-designed residential villa. The villa is a reinforced concrete structure, it
comprises a ground floor and first floor. The project is illustrated in the attached
drawings including floor plans and elevations. The drawings are in AutoCAD format and
drawn to scale.

2. Project:
The project will be built on a vacant lot in Dubai with a level topography. For the
purposes of your work, final site grades are equal to the pre-construction on-site grades.
The present ground composition consists of 15cm top soil and below that a mix of
gravel and sand down to a level of -8.00m. No clearing or grubbing is required and
utilities connections are available on site. The structural system will be a reinforced
concrete, cast-in-place structural system with concrete floor and roof slabs.

The foundation is isolated footings. One isolated footing is located under each column,
each footing is 1m X 1m with a depth of 0.5m. The foundation rests on a 1.4m X 1.4m
and 0.1m thick plain concrete base. Foundations are connected with tie beams of
dimensions 0.2cm by 0.4cm. All other beams have a width of 0.25m and a depth of
0.45m. The slab on grade has 0.15m depth. Elevated slabs have an 0.15m depth.

1
 Bar type A  5 bars diameter 12mm

Bar type B  6 bars diameter 16mm

Bar type C  4 bars diameter 16mm

Bar type D  8 stirrups diameter 8mm

Finishings are as follows:

 Floors: Floors are to be ceramic tiles for wet areas (kitchen and bathroom) and the rest
of the villa is porcelain tiles.
 Walls: Internal plaster and paint for interior walls. External plaster and paint for exterior
walls. Ceramic wall tiles for wet area (kitchen and bathroom).
 Ceiling: ceiling is a combination of plaster and paint for rooms and hallways, and
suspended ceiling (plane 60 x 60 acoustic tiles) for kitchens and bathrooms.
 Electrical and mechanical system and plumbing will be subcontracted and thus you are
not responsible for providing a detailed construction cost estimate of any mechanical,

2
 electrical, plumbing. You may assume that your MEP costs are 20% of the total cost of
the categories A to E.

Your bid must include all costs to construct the villa including basic finishing of the
interior. In order to commence with the work, you must provide appropriate toilets and
water for the workers, fencing to protect the site and other required temporary facilities
you see fit. Use the O&P cost in RS Means so that it includes your overheads and profit
as well.

Missing information must be carefully assumed (by shortly indicating the reasons) and/
or should be taken from appropriate specialist literature (cite your sources).

3. Requirements:
A detailed cost estimate must be produced using RSMeans Building Construction Cost
Data (1 set of login credentials will be provided for each group). It may be assumed that
the price for construction in Dubai is the same as the price for construction represented
in RSMeans for “National Average”. Use the data of the latest quarter provided in
RSMeans.
Teams must provide a detailed BOQ. At the end of the BOQ summarize the estimated
costs according to the following categories:
A. Earthwork: Excavation, Fill and Compaction
B. Foundation
C. Concrete
D. Masonry
E. Roofing, Painting, Finishing
F. Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing
G. Incidentals and Other Items (if any)

For groups of 3: all concrete works can be priced through extracting and using one item
from RSMeans that includes all costs of concrete, reinforcement and formwork.
For groups of 4: all concrete works except foundation can be priced through extracting
and using one item from RSMeans that includes all costs of concrete, reinforcement

3
 and formwork. For foundation concrete works, a separate quantity and cost must be
calculated for framework, reinforcement and concrete.

4. Project Grading and Bid Evaluation

Competitive bids will be collected as per the key dates indicated below. Competitive
bids must conform to all requirements specified and must be accompanied by a project
report.

The project grade will be based on the report written, process followed and bid
submitted. Projects will be graded according to the following criteria:
25% Submitted Bid (completeness, organization and neatness)
35% Project Report documenting work performed and assumptions made (report should
be brief and direct, yet also comprehensive, a template will be provided to be followed).
30% Completeness, organization and adequacy of project spreadsheets.
10% Effectiveness and format of RFI’s

Spreadsheets (Excel) must be used for documenting and organizing all calculations of
quantities and costs. Sheets must be organized and clearly labelled, to allow tracking
and verifying all calculations. A separate sheet should be used for each of the
categories A to G mentioned earlier. And a separate sheet should be used for the
finalized BOQ. Spreadsheets should be e-mailed to the course instructor by the
assigned due-date and included as an appendix to the report.

5. Key Dates and Key Information:

Regarding interpretation and correction of the bidding documents, bidders shall email
requests for clarification and interpretation on the Bidding Documents. All requests for
information must be received by Saturday 22nd of October, 2022 at 10.00 pm. Requests
must be formally presented using a professional Request for Information (RFI) format.
RFI document should be organized by drawing. All RFI’s will be clarified during the pre-

4
 bid meeting held on Monday 24th of October, 2022 at 10.00 am. Additional questions
maybe be answered during this pre-bid meeting and all responses shall be public
record.
Bids must be submitted in 1 compiled and properly named pdf file. Furthermore, the bid
documents must include a letter with original signature specifically guaranteeing that the
bid has been evaluated by project principals and is supported by company
shareholders. A surety bond (bid bond) in the amount of $50,000 shall be provided to
secure your bid. Teams shall examine different samples, and write up and submit a bid
bond.

Bids must be submitted no later than Monday 31st of October 2022 at 10:00 am at E-
405. Bid opening will take part on the same day. All bid submitters must attend the bid
opening.

6. Summary of Project Deliverables:

a) Project report
i. Include an abstract, brief introduction, all your work details, conclusions
and a proper list of references if any needed. Include all reasonably made
assumptions and all decisions or choices needed to be made and their
justification. Explain how each quantity was calculated. For example,
mention and explain your decision to excavate the whole site are or only
pits for footings, then explain how the calculations were made. Include a
list of group members and corresponding tasks. Report should not be
included in the same bid envelope.
ii. The report should include a parametric estimate produced using RSMeans
Square Foot Estimator. The total cost of the parametric estimate and the
detailed estimate should be compared and reasons for differences
between both estimates should be identified.

5
 b) Well organized and labeled spreadsheet with quantities and prices (via Email). In
the BOQ sheet, include an additional column for the RSMeans number of the
item used.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
c) A complete bid package (in a sealed envelope), including the following:
a. Detailed WBS in list marking structure through title indentation
b. Cost centers list – coded to match WBS
c. BOQ, showing all works quantities, and loaded (O&P) unit prices
d. Summary page with lump sum cost, and categories summary (A to G
listed above) signed
e. Bid bond
f. Letter of intent with original signatures.
g. Marked check list shown below.

Bid Package Check list

To be filled and included in the bid file

Item Check
Letter with original signatures
Detailed WBS
Cost centers list
BOQ
Summary page
Bid bond

7. Groups and RSMeans Access accounts

Group #1 Group #2
Abdelmohsen, Bahaaeldin Assaad, Zainab

6
Alex, Christopher Khamees, Ali
Al Khani, Dina Zebib, Dianna
John Saliba