SITEWORK · CIVIL / UTILITYTRADE · SITEWORK

Mainline, manholes, laterals, restoration, alternates.

Civil sitework packages are where AI estimators usually fail quietly. BuildBid flags the gaps instead.

Sitework bids live and die on the line items between the obvious ones. Mainline and structures are usually fine. What kills the bid is missed laterals on a side street, under-counted restoration square footage, or an alternate that was never priced. BuildBid surfaces all three as first-class objects in the draft.

Plan-and-profile sheets, utility schedules, and C-series spec sections are cross-read together. Pipe runs come out with length, diameter, material, and station range. Manholes are listed with rim/invert where legible, flagged where not. Laterals are counted per lot and per connection type.

Restoration is separated from installation. Asphalt patch, concrete patch, sod, seed, and curb-and-gutter replacement land in their own category so the alternate pricing logic stays intact when the package goes into negotiation.

Try on a sample civil packageSee sample estimate
WORKFLOW · HOW IT ACTUALLY RUNS5 STEPS
  1. STEP 01

    Drop the civil package

    C-series sheets, plan-and-profile, utility schedules, restoration notes, addenda. BuildBid scopes the draft to civil content and ignores architectural sheets unless you opt in.

  2. STEP 02

    Mainline + structures extracted

    Pipe runs with length, diameter, material. Manholes with rim/invert when legible. Structure schedules cross-referenced against plan symbols.

  3. STEP 03

    Laterals + services

    Counted per lot, per connection type, with diameter and material. Flagged where the plan leaves service type ambiguous.

  4. STEP 04

    Restoration split out

    Asphalt patch, concrete patch, sod, seed, curb-and-gutter. Surface-restoration quantities carry the station or region they belong to so you can sanity-check against the profile.

  5. STEP 05

    Alternates priced as separate lines

    Alternate bid items are detected from the bid form and priced as distinct line items — not bundled into the base — so negotiation does not lose the structure.

PAIN · WHAT THIS REPLACES

Where the hours actually go today

  • Missed laterals on peripheral streets because the count was eyeballed off a small-scale overall plan.
  • Restoration quantities under-counted because they were pulled from notes instead of the profile or a takeoff overlay.
  • Manhole rim/invert data re-typed from structure schedules, with transcription errors, every package.
  • Alternates getting bundled into the base number and losing their identity by the time the bid is negotiated.
LIMITS · WHAT BUILDBID IS NOT YET

Honest gaps — read before you buy

  • Earthwork cut/fill volumes from surface comparisons are not fully automated today — current output handles plan-view quantities well; cut/fill still wants a dedicated civil tool for high-stakes bids.
  • Erosion-control symbol extraction is sparse on hand-annotated plans. Structured SWPPP sheets work; marked-up PDFs do not always.
  • MUTCD traffic-control device counting is minimal today. Plan to ship per-sheet TCD detection in a later release.
  • Very large linear projects (multi-mile mainline) can exceed the single-project sheet budget — contact us for a segmented workflow.
REVIEW FOCUS · WHAT TO CHECK3 AREAS
CHECK 01

Plan-and-profile sheet with extracted pipe runs overlaid — length, diameter, material per segment.

CHECK 02

Structure schedule cross-read — manholes matched to plan symbols with rim/invert populated where legible.

CHECK 03

Restoration breakdown — asphalt, concrete, sod, seed, curb each as their own line items tied to station range.

NEXT · TRY ON A SAMPLE

Sample plans, zero setup. The draft comes back with quantities, confidence flags, and the source rows we used. You review before you send.

Try on a sample civil package