Tender & Estimating Software for Civil Contractors

A civil takeoff is the measured volume, area, length and count of every element of earthworks and infrastructure shown on the design drawings, broken down so each can be priced with plant, labour, materials and haulage. A complete civil takeoff typically covers:

• Bulk earthworks — cut and fill volumes calculated from existing and design surface levels, topsoil strip and respread, and site regrading.
• Pavement and subgrade — subgrade preparation, sub-base and base course layers, and sealed or unsealed pavement areas measured by depth and area.
• Stormwater and sewer drainage — pipe lengths by diameter and material, pits, headwalls and connections, measured to the relevant standard method.
• Services and trenching — trench excavation and backfill for power, water, gas and telecommunications conduits, measured in lineal metres.
• Kerb, footpath and ancillary works — kerb and channel, concrete or asphalt footpaths, line marking and signage.

My Trade Hub’s estimation engine reads your civil design drawings and performs the measured takeoff automatically — calculating earthworks volumes from level data, measuring pavement areas by layer, and taking off drainage and services lengths — instead of an estimator scaling every level and dimension off the plan set by hand.

Because the takeoff is automated rather than manual, it runs 60-75% faster than measuring the same design package by hand, which is the difference between comfortably meeting a tender closing date and rushing the final pricing overnight.

The output is a structured, itemised schedule of civil quantities — organised by earthworks, pavement, drainage and services — not a single black-box total, so an estimator can review and adjust every line before a rate is ever applied.

Once quantities are measured, pricing civil work means building up a rate for each item from plant hire or ownership cost, labour, materials and haulage — civil rates are unusually sensitive to plant productivity and cartage distance, which a generic trade rate never captures.

Earthworks rates depend heavily on machine size and productivity, ground conditions, and how far cut material has to be hauled to fill or to a spoil site — a longer haul cycle changes the whole rate, not just the transport line. Drainage and services rates need to reflect trench depth, shoring or battering requirements, and dewatering where the water table is shallow.

On top of plant, labour, materials and haulage, add overheads and margin, and build in a realistic allowance for traffic management, environmental controls and any geotechnical conditions flagged in the site investigation report.

With earthworks, pavement, drainage and services quantities measured and priced, the next step is assembling that pricing into a complete tender submission against the principal’s conditions of tendering — usually a priced Bill of Quantities alongside methodology, program and compliance documentation.

My Trade Hub turns the priced takeoff straight into a structured, client-ready tender document, so the same measured quantities that built the price also populate the priced schedule you lodge, rather than being re-keyed into a separate document under deadline pressure.

Because the slow part — measuring the site — is already done, the remaining tender effort goes into methodology, program and risk allowances, which is exactly where a civil tender is genuinely won or lost.

Civil contractors occasionally quote small, clearly scoped jobs directly — a driveway crossover, a small stormwater connection, minor site regrading for a single client — but the great majority of civil and infrastructure work is won through formal tender.

A civil tender is typically issued by a developer, principal contractor, utility authority or council, against engineering design drawings and specification, often with a Bill of Quantities that fixes the measured quantities so every tenderer prices the identical scope. Larger infrastructure and subdivision works add earthworks reports, geotechnical data and environmental conditions that all need to be priced into the submission.

The estimating principle stays the same either way — measure the design accurately, then price it — but a civil tender demands a far more rigorous program, plant schedule and risk allowance than a quote, since site conditions and haulage assumptions can make or break the margin on works this scale.

Most civil under-quotes come down to a short list of recurring mistakes, almost all of which trace back to time pressure on a large, complex measurement task.

• Under-estimating haulage distance or cycle time, which quietly inflates every cubic metre of cut and fill on the job.
• Missing the swell and compaction factors that convert an in-situ excavation volume into the actual volume of material handled and placed.
• Not allowing for rock, groundwater or contaminated material flagged in the geotechnical report, which changes both plant selection and rate.
• Under-pricing traffic management and environmental controls on projects near live roads or waterways.
• Pricing from an earlier design revision, so measured quantities no longer match the latest issued-for-construction drawings.

On larger civil and infrastructure tenders, a dedicated civil estimator or quantity surveyor prepares the takeoff and price build-up, working closely with a plant and construction manager who understands real machine productivity and site logistics for the specific ground conditions.

On smaller civil businesses, the owner or a senior foreman often estimates the job themselves between running current sites — which is exactly when the sheer volume of measurement in a civil design package becomes the bottleneck, since there is rarely spare time to scale levels and areas by hand between site visits.

Either way, the underlying problem is the same: someone has to measure a whole site’s worth of earthworks, pavement and drainage before pricing can begin, which is precisely the step My Trade Hub automates.