Construction contract time determination

The primary objective of this research study was to develop a rational procedure for the Texas Department of Transportation to determine the time required to complete a construction contract for different types of highway construction projects. The final product of this research project is the TxDOT Contract Time Determination System (CTDS). The system was developed to complement the existing TxDOT Pre-Construction Management system which categorizes all projects into fourteen different classes. The CTDS is a conceptual estimating system for predicting contract time for highway construction projects and is not to be used for the detailed planning of actual construction activities for a project. It is a bar chart scheduling system based on standard work items for each project class with the flexibility to add other work items as desired. It includes both a manual method and a computerized method. The CTDS user supplies actual work quantities for a project and by applying standard production rates, or preferred rates of the user, a contract duration is established. The computer version of the system was based on existing software already used for the TxDOT Pre-Construction Management System, and must be used with Lotus 123 (Version 2.0), Flash-Up (Version 3.05), and SuperProject (Version 2.0). The system can be used for the majority of TxDOT projects; however, for very large or complex projects, it will be necessary to develop the estimated project duration using a detailed planning approach.