ATA REQUIRED FOR PREPARING AN ESTIMATE

In order to prepare a detailed estimate, the estimator must have with him the following data:

1. Plans, sections and other relevant details of the work.

2. Specifications indicating the exact nature and class of materials to be used.

3. The rates at which the different items of work are carried out. To enable an estimator to take out
the quantities accurately, the drawings must themselves be clear, true to the fact and scale,
complete, and fully dimensioned. The estimator has also to bear in mind certain principles of taking
out quantities.

STEPS IN PREPARATION OF AN ESTIMATE

There are three clearly defined steps in the preparation of an estimate.

1. TAKING OUT QUANTITIES

In the first step of taking out quantities, the measurements are taken off from the drawings and
entered on measurement sheet or dimension paper. The measurements to be taken out would
depend upon the unit of measurement. Obviously, the unit of measurement in the first case is cubic
meter and that in the second case is square meter.

2. SQUARING OUT
The second step consists of working out volumes, areas, etc. and casting up their total in recognized
units.

3. ABSTRACTING
In the third step all the items along with the net results obtained in the second step are transferred
from measurement sheets to specially ruled sheets having rate column ready for pricing. The
second and third steps above are known as working up. All calculations in these stages and every
entry transferred should be checked by another person to ensure that no mathematical or copying
error occurs.

STANDARD METHOD OF MEASUREMENT OF BUILDING WORKS

The different methods of measuring used by various Central and State Government departments
and by construction, agencies were found to be a serious difficulty to estimators and a standing
cause of disputes. For this reason, a unification of the various systems at the technical level had
been accepted as very desirable and wanting. Although the standard has no legal sanction and as
such need not be adopted unless it is referred to in the contracts.

PRINCIPLES OF DECIDING UNIT OF MEASUREMENT

A beginner may find it difficult to remember the units of measurement of different items.
Memorizing of units of measurement would be greatly simplified if he knows the principles kept
in view while selecting the units of measurements. Following are the most important principles of
selection of unit of measurement:

1. The unit of measurement should be simple and convenient to measure, record and understand.

2. It should be one, which provides for fair payment for the work involved.

3. In the result it should yield quantities, which are neither too minute nor too large.

4. The price per unit should not be a very small figure or a very large one, that is, generally costlier
items will be measured in smaller units, cheaper ones in larger units.

5. The unit of measurement may sometimes depend upon the unit for the raw material and/or labor
and/or important dimensions.

FIVE WAYS TO EVALUATE YOUR PROJECTS

We all want our projects to be a success but how can you know for sure if you’ve achieved everything
you set out to? Why not try these five ways to evaluate your projects. You’ll be able to assess your
achievements objectively and quickly.

1. COMPARE SCHEDULE PERFORMANCE

Use the dashboards and reports produced by your project management software to compare what
project tasks you actually did and how long they took against your original plans. Hopefully you’ll see
that your final project schedule isn’t that much longer than your original forecast, which will tell you
that you didn’t overrun and take more time than you anticipated.

However, many projects do take more time than planned. This is often because the project team add
more into the project. Remember to look behind the reports to assess the reasons why your project
took longer than expected if this happens to you.

2. COMPARE BUDGET PERFORMANCE

Did you spend more or less money than you expected? Generally, we want to spend less but in reality
often, projects end up spending more! Again, you can use reports and your stored project data to
assess how much your project went over budget.

It’s easy to do the comparison with the expense management features of ProjectManager.com. You
can quickly see the actual figures and compare them to what you originally planned.

3. REVIEW RISKS
Looking back over your project risks is another good way to evaluate your project. Did you manage all
your risks effectively? If not, what went wrong? Go through your risk log and check that all the risks
are now closed or being managed by someone who is not part of the project team.

4. REVIEW ESTIMATES
Many projects involve work that hasn’t been done before so it can be difficult to estimate exactly how
long those tasks will take. If you have no experience of doing the work previously, then it’s very tricky
to work out what’s involved. However, project management standards and methods include several
ways to estimate tasks, so you can use tried and tested approaches to assess how long an activity
should take.

When you get to the end of the project you can look back and compare these estimates against how
long it actually took your team members to do the work. This is a good way to learn from experience:
if you ever work on a similar project with similar tasks you can use your evaluation to improve your
estimates next time. Equally, you can assess how good your estimating process was by checking
whether your estimates were accurate at the end of the project.

5. GET FEEDBACK
Finally, don’t forget that your project team members are a great source of feedback about how the
project has gone. Spend some time with them and ask what worked and what could have been done
better. This can be through a formal post-project review or through informal chats with different
stakeholders.

Project evaluation is a really important step in the project management lifecycle and using online
project management software to help assess success is a good way of managing this essential
process at the end of the project.

5 WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR ASPHALT DRIVEWAY

An asphalt driveway surface can last quite a few years without too many problems. There are some
basic steps you can take to preserve the surface and help it maintain good looks and function
longer. Below are five ways to help preserve your asphalt driveway from the start.

Asphalt Surface Sealant

Have a protective seal sprayed over the surface of your driveway at regularly scheduled intervals.
The surface can be inspected at the time to check for uneven areas and damage. This is not
something that has to be done each year, but an expert asphalt paver will recommend the best
course of action for your surface. It may need to be dome more frequently as your driveway ages.

Limit Weight On Hot Days

Heat can tend to make the asphalt surface your pliable under tremendous weight. The hottest days
of summer are not the best times to have several cars parked in your driveway at one time. You may
want to find another area to park a huge RV or piece of heavy equipment. You can have a small
area of gravel placed for heavier vehicles to park on.

Repair all Damage Right Away

Once there are dings and potholes made on the asphalt surface, it leads to further damage. This can
all happen quickly. Take the time to have all visible damage repaired as fast as possible to protect
the overall integrity of the driveway.

Seal Cracks Each Season

Cracks in the asphalt surface can happen for many reasons, but seasonal temperature changes are
part of the problem. Use a quality sealer to mend any cracks that form. This will help extend the life
of your asphalt driveway. The color of the material is black and matches well with the surface.

Provide Good Drainage

Excess amounts of rain and snowmelt on your asphalt driveway will begin to degrade the surface. It
will eventually find a way down and cause pitting, potholes, and foundation sinking. Leaving the
URBAN PLANNING

Urban planning is a mixture of science and art. It encompasses many different disciplines and
brings them all under a single umbrella. The simplest definition of urban planning is that it is the
organization of all elements of a town or other urban environment. However, when one thinks
about all the elements that make up a town, urban planning suddenly seems complicated – and it
is.

Real urban planning is a relatively new concept. It gained popularity beginning in the mid-to-late
19th century, when it became obvious that there should be some kind of plan or larger goals for
the growth of big cities like New York and Philadelphia. Before this time, cities very often grew
as they had need, and the surrounding land was just swallowed up. London, Paris, Tokyo – none
of these world cities had much urban planning, and even now, the addresses and streets in their
older sections can be confusing even to natives.
Urban planning also became popular because of the growing need to get factory workers into
healthier housing, rather than stuffing them into fire-trap tenements. With the advent of unions,
workers had advocates to help lobby for better housing. Hence, “mill villages” and “steel villages”
sprang up in larger cities.

Nowadays, urban planning takes all aspects of a city into consideration. It includes plans for safety,
aesthetics and common sense placement of everything from houses to factories. Parents wouldn’t
want their children’s playground next to the water treatment plant, for instance, and urban planning
helps eliminate such problems. Goals for attractive architecture for city buildings are put into place
and pleasing green spaces are planned. Good urban planning gets schools into the neighborhoods
where they are needed most, places hospitals in centralized locations, allows for growth and plans
highways accordingly.

Perhaps good urban planning is most evident in good highway planning in a city. Anticipating
growth and traffic needs for a big city is crucial. Urban planners must consider how future growth
will affect traffic flow and try to eliminate trouble spots before they become a problem. Even
placing sewer systems and drainage systems is a necessary element of urban planning, albeit a less
glamorous one. Urban planners must consider geography, the water table and numerous other
elements of a city’s landscape in order to properly plan for this necessity.

Because so many disciplines make up the larger concept of urban planning, a group of urban
planners may have widely divergent degrees: civil engineering, architecture, botany, landscape
design, electrical engineering, business administration, and so on. Urban planners who are good at
what they do are highly sought after by municipal governments. When efficient urban planning is
used, cities are more attractive and serve their citizens to the best of their potential.

LED IS THE FUTURE

LED or Light Emitting Diode is a breakthrough technology in lighting that has revolutionized the
quality and cost of lighting. LED lighting is incredibly versatile and can be used for almost all
lighting purposes be it for a car, home or public lighting. The advantages of LED over conventional
light bulbs are numerous. First and foremost, they are far more eco-friendly than their conventional
brethren so that they can work for a lot longer without needing to be changed. The color they emit
can be easily modified as it consists of merely changing a chip rather than the finicky process
commonly associated with conventional or even energy saving light bulbs.

The long lifecycle of LED lights is also attributable to their resilience to power surges and physical
force. They have, by nature of their compact construction, a high resistance to shock, so that where
a conventional light bulb might break or the filament snap, an LED light will continue to work.
Furthermore, LEDs are resilient to power surges, an issue common in Australia. Conventional
lights tend to burn out when too much voltage is put through them and they have a tendency to
burn through their filament a lot faster if exposed to higher than required voltages for prolonged
periods of time.

LED at home: For a home environment the versatility of LED is ideal. The very long life cycle,
combined with the option of colored or white light and the ability of the user to tune the brightness
of the light all make LED the perfect choice for home lighting. Furthermore, the compact nature
of LED lights allows for far more attractive designs and gives the user the opportunity to place
lights in places where conventional lights could not fit, such as in cramped storage areas or in
corners where the fixture can adhere to the interior designers plans.
LED is also ideal for outdoor lighting, where the issues of power consumption and light pollution
are common. By nature, LED lights use far less power than conventional lighting and when
combined with a sensor-activated system can be very eco-friendly. Often described as ‘soft-on the
eye’, users report that LED lights emit a far more natural hue than normal lights do and are
therefore less of a disruption to nature in the form of light pollution.

Different Shades of Light: Tests and Studies have shown that different types and colors of light
are beneficial to different situations. For example, a neutral white light with a high proportion of
blue helps increase concentration at work. The adaptability of LED lights allows the user to choose
the type of light they would like in different areas of their home so that while the study may have
white light with a high proportion of blue, the living room could have a warm white light, which
has been proven to stimulate social activities in bars. The driveway can have whatever color
lighting the user wishes to come home to every day.
Prevalence of LED: Homeowners and businesses alike are quickly switching to LED because of
the immense benefits it provides. Companies such as Coro spark are fitting indoor and outdoor
LED lighting to homes in Australia and this is fast becoming a major trend. LED lighting can be
up to 75% more efficient than the standard incandescent lighting used in most homes and can last
up 35 to 50 times as long. Also, LED lights do not emit the kind of heat that normal lights do so
there is little unnecessary energy lost through thermal energy, which can also cut down on air
conditioning costs. Most LED lights come with a three-year warranty, far more than the industry
standards dictate and can last for a lot longer than that.
In countries where public lighting was replaced a few years ago with power-saving
(environmentally friendly) lighting, they are again replacing them with LEDs because of the
significant difference in power savings and the cost effectiveness of their long lifecycle.

The future is undoubtedly in LED lighting and we are better off for it. The savings involved and
the efficiency LED provides should not be overlooked. The many options for customization in
brightness and color are a far cry from the neon lit offices of yesterday and we will soon consider
LED as the only option for public and private lighting.

LOAD TESTS FOR PILES

The purpose of carrying out pile driving test is to confirm on the design bearing capacity, soil
condition, design length of pile, construction period and applicability of construction equipment
and the pile driving test shall always be carried out in the presence of the Engineer.

Therefore, the Contractor should carry out the loading test for the pile before proceeding series of
piling. The method of loading test should be followed by Engineer’s directions. If it is not specified
in the designing document, corresponding to each diameter, length, bearing capacity of pile from
the quantity of trial piles must be more than 1% of pile quantity and minimum at least 2 piles.

STATIC LOAD TEST

Before proceeding series of piling, the Contractor must carry out the static loading test for the pile.
The Contractor must establish the pile static loading test thesis and submit for the Engineer’s
approval before implementing. The test must follow strictly the approved designing document. Its
content must mention the followings:

 Features of construction
 Features of the ground at the constructing site and at the testing position
 Proceeding method
 Resting time of pile after completing proceeding until testing
 Trial capacity and greatest change of pile position as anticipated.
 Method and procedure for loading extending
 Anticipation on the time, progress of trial organizing.
 Requirements on testing equipment
 Other necessary requirements.
DYNAMIC LOAD TEST
Dynamic load testing shall be performed during pile driving work. Wave speed shall be measured
for pile prior to setting up the pole for loading test. When measuring the wave speed, pile shall be
laid down horizontally on flat ground, and measure shall be taken to prevent contact with other
piles. Pile shall be driven down to the depth of reaching ultimate bearing capacity.
During driving of pile, the stress acting on pile shall be monitored and controlled to stay below the
allowable value. When necessary, striking energy transmitted to pile shall be reduced to maintain
the stress below the allowable value by adding cushion or by reducing the output hammer energy.
After completion of dynamic loading test, the Contractor shall report the results to the Engineer
for confirmation and shall determine the number of pile and driving depth for the Work.

When passed 24 hours from the completion of dynamic pile load testing, test instrument shall be
attached to the pile and pile shall be re-driven. Penetration depth of pile during re-driving shall be
less than 150mm, and the number of hammering shall be less than 50 times.

WHAT SHOULD BE COVERED AT BUILDING SITE SUPERVISOR

COURSES?

SSSTS courses (Site Supervisor Safety Training Scheme) are becoming increasingly popular as
businesses become more aware of health and safety regulations, recognizing that good health and
safety practice not only benefits the employees, but the business itself. Production is increased as
employees can work quickly in clean, safe surroundings, handling dangerous jobs properly, avoiding
unnecessary injury and danger. There are a high percentage of building site related injuries and
fatalities annually in the UK and many can be avoided by improving health and safety awareness
throughout a building site.

Many different kinds of people take SSSTS courses, and although they are mostly used within the
construction industry, they can also be useful for those running a temporary worksite like a large scale
photo shoot or film production.

It can be difficult to choose the right course, particularly if you haven’t sourced a safety course before.

Here are the details of what should be covered on a building site supervisor course:
Who is it for?
The site supervisor course is for people who have or are about to have a supervisory role on a building
site.
What is it for?
It provides education and skills relating to risk assessment, management, control, communication,
monitoring, welfare and reporting relating to the health and safety on the site.

Those on the course will leave with an excellent understanding of what their responsibility involves;
enabling them to successfully oversee health and safety on the construction site they are responsible
for.

Can it be used in conjunction with any other courses?

If you’re doing a basic health and safety awareness course this could be followed by an SSSTS course.
And this wishing to do an SMSTS course at some stage in their career will benefit from doing
the training course beforehand.
What is learnt on the course?
When you have completed the course you will be able to:

 Have a full understanding of the health and safety problems within the construction industry.
From the most common issues, to the less regular issues that still need to be considered.
 Have a good understanding of health and safety law, gaining knowledge on general laws that
affect your job role, as well as specific legislation relating to the construction industry.
 Understand your job role in relation to other members of management.
 Understand how to perform full risk assessments, and how to document and report those
properly.
 Learn how to provide employees with full training site inductions.
 Learn how to use both proactive and reactive monitoring and understand the need for both
methods.
What are the main topics that should be covered?
The main topics covered will be; common construction accidents, health and safety laws, regulations,
legislation and approved codes of practice.

There will also be in depth teaching of how to perform thorough risk assessments, looking at areas
like; noise, fire, demolition, electricity, working at height and confined spaces.

Who should the course be accredited by?

There are lots of reputable governing bodies accrediting courses; the most common are CITB and
IOSH.

PROFESSIONAL GAS LINE TEST PROCEDURES

Professional gas technicians conduct internal field pressure tests shortly after new pipelines are
installed. In most cases, the lines that are tested contain a lot of air or nitrogen.

BASIC TESTING METHODS

At industrial plants, gas line workers conduct a pre-test and the regular test. The early procedures help
the technicians prep the lines for the main test. This basically means that the tension equilibrium is
adjusted to boost volume within the gas lines. Once this process is completed, the pressure in the
system drops. As this happens, the machinery constantly pumps so that vital components can recover
the lost pressure. Depending on the level of pressure, the workers may have to re-tighten the flange
screws if the connection weakens. When everything is stable in the gas line, the main testing phase
begins. Throughout the main test, the pressure typically drops along the walls within the pipes. As a
result, the machinery doesn’t have to use the pumping mechanism anymore. However, frequent
inspections are necessary since leaks can happen without notice. Gas line pressure technicians
always check for leaks around joints, which is where the position of a pipe usually changes.

When a pipeline is equipped with compensators, other test procedures will be implemented.
Compensators are highly sophisticated components that can influence specific actions in a pipeline.
The test pressure in a pipeline with compensators is much higher, so the axial forces near specific
points have matching properties. Workers always consider the pressure levels carefully when creating
fixed points within this kind of pipeline.

INTERNAL TEST METHODS

Before technicians implement any internal testing procedures, they thoroughly inspect the equipment.
A properly prepared system should have correctly mounted flap traps and relief components. Near the
end of the lines, all valves must be efficiently shut to prevent high pressure problems.

Once the inspection is done, the pipeline will be filled to the lowest level. Later, pressure is applied to
the system slowly so that the water doesn’t hammer.

At industrial plants, highly trained workers use advanced equipment to test the pressure in gas lines.
The goal during every project is to test all lines strategically without damaging the pressure transmitter.