Development of an automated tool for cost estimation of transportation projects

The cost estimation process has undergone fundamental changes with the advancement of technology, and has been converted from cost estimation that employs two-dimensional maps to cost estimation using building information modeling (BIM). This technology has been recently implemented to estimate the costs of several transportation projects, but there is not a tool that accurately estimates the cost in a continuous spectrum and keeps pace with the progress of the transportation project. The main objectives of this study were to (1) create a cost estimation mechanism that operates in a continuous spectrum from the study phase to the construction phase of transportation projects, and (2) automate the cost estimation process. Open standards such as the industry foundation classes (IFC) were used, and the level of confidence (LOC) mechanism were introduced and implemented for determining the risk of the estimated costs. The developed cost estimation approach will be implemented as a web-based application developed by C# and ASP.NET MVC Core. The results of implementing this tool showed that a higher LOD level results in greater reliability in the cost estimation and quantity take-off, and will help transportation project managers accurately estimate project costs throughout the construction process.