The internship company does not have a standard procedure for preparing an engineer’s estimate of probable construction cost document (engineer’s estimate) for municipal projects. Every project manager employs a methodology that is a slightly different variation of the historical data approach. The internship objective was to develop a construction unit price estimation model that provides more accurate results than the company’s existing unit price estimation methodology for the City of Fort Worth construction projects. To accomplish the internship objective several tasks were conducted, including; gathering City of Fort Worth construction projects bid tabulation data (including all bids) for the past three years; developing three construction item unit price databases using the data collected; conducting statistical analyses using the unit price databases;developing tables and graphs showing the construction cost items and their appropriate estimated unit prices to be used by the project managers in their cost estimates; developing an approach to apply construction unit costs which adjusts for unique project characteristics; developing guidelines for using the developed tables and graphs to estimate unit prices for municipal projects; using one recent project to compare the company’s existing unit price estimation methodology and the new developed model with actual unit bid prices; and developing guidelines for updating the unit price database, tables, and graphs. The study made use of both normal and log-normal distributions to model the unit bid price data collected from the City of Fort Worth. The factors that are perceived to influence a contractor’s unit bid price for a given item were identified and given a degree of impact on the project by the project managers. The factor that had the highest impact on the unit bid prices was discovered to be item quantity. The unit price estimating methodology presented in this study generated a better fit than the internship company’s original method for predicting the actual average unit bid prices for the one case study the methodology was applied.

The thesis is focused on the issue of Apartment price heat maps. The aim is to approach the topic of apartment price heat maps, methodology for the creation of price heat maps and its specifics. Theoretical knowledge is applied to two selected parts of Prague - Zizkov and Vinohrady. The final data of both areas are summarised to two specific price heat maps. The end of the thesis compares the processed results with officially published data of the czech national institution ČSÚ.

The aim of this master thesis is primarily to develop a methodological framework for a contracting authority receiving an abnormally low bid. The theoretical part of the thesis outlines the basic terms and definitions, analyzes a public tender from the perspective of a contracting authority and defines an extremely low bid price. The practical part of the thesis applies the methodological framework for dealing with an extremely low bid price on the case study, where on the set of selected areas of mechanical items indicates possible views above the limit costs of individual items costing unit prices of construction work.

Electrical power systems consist of a large number of power generators connected to consumers through a complex system of transmission and distribution lines. Within the electric grid, a continuous balance between generation and consumption of electricity must be maintained., ensuring stable operation of the grid. In recent decades due to increasing electricity demand, there is an increased likelihood of electrical power systems experiencing stress conditions. These conditions lead to a limited supply and cascading failures throughout the grid that could lead to wide area outages. Demand Response (DR) is a method involving the curtailment of loads during critical peak load hours, that restores that balance between demand and supply of electricity. In order to implement DR and ensure efficient energy operation of buildings, detailed energy monitoring is essential. This information can then be used for energy management, by monitoring the power consumption of devices and giving users detailed feedback at an individual device level. Based on the data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), approximately half of all commercial buildings in the U.S. are 5,000 square feet or smaller in size, whereas the majority of the rest is made up of medium-sized commercial buildings ranging in size between 5,001 and 50,000 square feet. Given that these medium-size buildings account for a large portion of the total energy demand, these buildings are an ideal target for participating in DR. In this dissertation, two broad solutions for commercial building DR have been presented. The first is a load disaggregation technique to disaggregate the power of individual HVACs using machine learning classification techniques, where a single power meter is used to collect aggregated HVAC power data of a building. This method is then tested over a number of case studies, from which it is found that the aggregated power data can be disaggregated to accurately predict the power consumption and state of activity of individual HVAC loads. The second work focuses on a DR algorithm involving the determination of an optimal bid price for double auctioning between the user and the electric utility, in addition to a load scheduling algorithm that controls single floor HVAC and lighting loads in a commercial building, considering user preferences and load priorities. A number of case studies are carried out, from which it is observed that the algorithm can effectively control loads within a given demand limit, while efficiently maintaining user preferences for a number of different load configurations and scenarios. Therefore, the major contributions of this work include- A novel HVAC power disaggregation technique using machine learning methods, and also a DR algorithm for HVAC and lighting load control, incorporating user preferences and load priorities based on a double-auction approach. / Doctor of Philosophy / Electrical power systems consist of a large number of power generators connected to consumers through a complex system of transmission and distribution lines. Within the electric grid, a continuous balance between generation and consumption of electricity must be maintained., ensuring stable operation of the grid. When electricity demand is high, Demand Response (DR) is a method that can be used to reduce user loads, restoring the balance between demand and supply of electricity. Based on data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), half of all commercial buildings in the US measure 5,000 square feet or smaller in size, whereas the majority of the other half is made up of medium-sized commercial buildings measuring in at between 5,001 to 50,000 square feet. This makes these commercial buildings an ideal target for participating in DR. In this dissertation, two broad solutions for commercial building DR have been presented. The first is a load disaggregation technique, where power consumption and activity of individual HVACs can be obtained, using a single power meter. The second work focuses on a DR algorithm, that controls single floor HVAC and lighting loads in a commercial building, based on a user generated bid price for electricity, user preferences and load priorities, when electricity demand is at its peak.

abstract: Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is a growing and expanding trenchless method utilized to install pipelines from 2 to 60 inch diameters for lengths over 10,000 foot. To date, there are not many public documents where direct costs and bid prices incurred by HDD installations are available and analyzed. The objective is to provide a better understanding of the factors affecting the bid prices of these projects. The first section of the thesis analyzes how project parameters such as product diameter, bore length and soil conditions affect the bid price of water and wastewater pipeline installations using HDD. Through multiple linear regressions, the effect of project parameters on bid prices of small, medium and large rigs projects is extracted. The results were further investigated to gain a better understanding of bid factors that influence the relationship between total cost and the project parameters. The second section uses unit cost, based on bid prices, to compare the costs incurred by defined categories. Parameters such as community type, product type, soil conditions, and geographical region were used in the analysis. Furthermore, using average unit cost from 2001 to 2009, HDD project cost trends are briefly analyzed against the main variations of the US economy from the same time horizon by using economic indicators. It was determined that project geometric factors influence more the bid price of small rig projects than large rig projects because external factors including market rates and economic situation have an increasing impact on bid prices when rig size increases. It was observed that bid price variation of HDD projects over years followed the same trend as the US economic variation described by economic indicators. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Construction 2010

This Master’s thesis deals with the analysis of the effects influencing the difference between projected and actual costs of the works. To obtain prices of supply and demand itemized budgets were compiled on the basis of the project documents of this object and firm pricing. The actual price is based on the outputs of in-house accounting. The result is an effort to define and describe all possible factors that might have a negative effect on the project's economic outcome.

The issue solved in this thesis is the procedure for the award of public contract with extensive subject matter of the construction works. In accordance with assumed level of fulfillment, over limit public order is awarded in open procedure. Afterwards, the analysis of submitted bids from contenders was created in parallel with an assessment of the impacts, which have occurred during the implementation of the fulfilling of the public contract. The thesis is examined from the perspective of the Act No. 137/2006 Coll., on Public Procurement, as amended. Future recommendation is the establishment of new amendment to that Act, with the aim to increase the evaluation criterion of economic advantageousness of tenders.

Thesis is focused on the use of value analysis in the financing of engineering structures in municipality. The work is divided into two parts. The first is focused on explaining the basic concepts of public contracts and value analysis and describes the methods of value analysis.The second part focuses on finding the best tender submitted for the tender of public contract.

Quantification of the influence of type construction is realized for the purpose of determining the market price of flats by using comparative method of valuation. Comparative method is based on the market principle. Comparative method is based directly on a comparison of sales similar properties in similar conditions. Comparing price of comparative properties and appraised property is performed by using a number of criteria of significant differences, the evaluation of these criteria are quantified by using the coefficients of differences. In practice is usual to provide the range and number of coefficients based on professional judgment. The most important coefficients in comparative method of valuation are location, technical characteristics, equipment, accessories, property rights, other relevant factors and mainly the coefficient of influence of type construction is one of the most important factors of pricing. Due to this fact based on the analysis of public available sources (mostly from real estate server www.sreality.cz) is set, how the price is affected by the type of flat construction. During the creation database and it´s layout was found, that one of the pricing factor for the type of structure is insulation, therefore is this factor also considered.

Diploma thesis deals with the analysis of the approach of construction companies to the preparation of price offers. The theoretical part contains an explanation of the basic concepts of the issue and possible ways to determine the price of the construction work. In the practical part, this topic is researched in practice using a questionnaire survey. The results of the questionnaire survey are followed by two interviews with representatives from practice. After evaluating these data, the established hypotheses are verified and recommendations are expressed.