Cut, fill, paving, and utilities — from grading to curb.
Pilrs reads civil drawings — grading plans, utility plans, paving plans — and produces cut-and-fill volumes, asphalt and concrete paving SF, pipe LF by size and material, and structure counts for manholes, inlets, and valves.
Civil sitework is the most variable trade on the construction schedule. A 2-acre commercial site might involve moving 15,000 CY of earth (cut, fill, and import/export balance), laying 800 LF of storm pipe with 12 structures, paving 45,000 SF of asphalt in two thickness sections, installing 1,200 LF of curb and gutter, plus 400 LF of sanitary lateral and 280 LF of water main with 4 hydrants. Each scope has its own equipment fleet, crew size, soil-condition dependency, and weather risk.
The takeoff bottleneck is cut-and-fill volume calculation. Existing topo contours subtracted from proposed grade across a grid (typically 25 or 50 ft spacing) yields net cut/fill — but manual spot-checks miss pockets and routinely err by 18-25% over the project. Worse, soil shrinkage (typically 12-18%) and import/export hauling distance turn raw volume into an expensive scope item: $8-14/CY for export, plus tipping fees if contaminated. A 1,000 CY miss is a $8,000-14,000 bid swing.
Underground utilities fail on depth and structure count. A 400 LF sanitary lateral at 12-ft depth requires trench boxes or sloped excavation per OSHA Subpart P — neither shown on the plan, both adding $4,200-8,400 of unbid scope. Manholes are counted from the plan, but cleanouts, saddle connections, fittings, and bedding/backfill quantities are often hidden in typical details that estimators skip.
Existing TIN minus proposed TIN computed on a 25 or 50-ft grid — but manual sketch-based estimates use 5-10 spot points and miss localized cuts and fills. A site with rolling existing topo and a flat finished grade can show a 20% net volume difference between a 5-point manual estimate and a 50-ft grid calculation. On 15,000 CY of earthwork, that is 3,000 CY at $14/CY haul = $42,000 swing.
Native cohesive soil shrinks 15-18% from bank to compacted in place; granular fill shrinks 8-12%; rock fill swells 25-40%. A bid that ignores shrinkage requires 18% more material than calculated. A 5,000 CY structural fill placement actually requires 5,900 CY of haul — a $12,600 overrun if bid was for 5,000 CY at $14/CY.
A 14-CY tandem dump truck has cycle time of 45 minutes round-trip at 5 miles haul, 75 minutes at 12 miles, 105 minutes at 20 miles. A 5,000 CY export at 12-mile haul needs 357 truck cycles or 446 truck-hours at $145/hour = $64,700. Bid at 5-mile haul rate, the same haul costs $40,200 — a $24,500 underbid if distance is wrong.
Geotechnical reports specify undercut and replace where bearing capacity is inadequate. Typical undercut is 2-4 ft deep at building footprint and pavement areas. Manual takeoffs often miss undercut entirely — on a 30,000 SF building footprint at 3-ft undercut, that is 3,300 CY of unbid excavation plus 3,300 CY of select fill at $22/CY placed = $72,600.
A 400 LF sanitary main with 4 changes of direction needs 4 manhole structures or 4 cleanout fittings. Each fitting is $480-1,400 installed. Tee, wye, and reducer fittings on storm and water mains add $180-680 each. A typical commercial site has 40-80 underground fittings — manual takeoffs capture 65-80% of them.
Silt fence at $4/LF, inlet protection at $185/inlet, rock construction entrance at $1,800 each, weekly SWPPP inspections at $185 each — plus monthly maintenance and repair labor over the project duration. A 12-month commercial project has $18,000-32,000 of SWPPP scope. Bid as "lump sum erosion control" misses the duration multiplier.
The line items that slip between plan sheets — and the dollars that leave with them.
Per spec, top 4-6 inches of topsoil must be stripped, stockpiled, and replaced after grading. On a 2-acre site, that is 1,300 CY of strip and replace at $5/CY = $6,500 of often-missed scope.
Concrete washout pits and equipment decontamination zones required by NPDES permit run $2,400-4,800 per project — frequently absorbed by site contractor when not bid.
Asphalt parking lot striping at $0.42/LF plus ADA stencils and stop bars run $4,800-12,000 on a typical commercial parking lot — sometimes split-bid wrong between civil and exterior trades.
Sites with high water table need wellpoint or sump dewatering during deep excavation. Daily dewatering at $480-980/day over 14-21 days is $8,000-20,000 of often-missed scope.
EPA NPDES Construction General Permit updates in 2024 tightened SWPPP requirements; state-level stormwater bioretention mandates expanded in 18 states. Combined with the IIJA spending wave that pulls heavy equipment and operators away from commercial site work, plus equipment rental rate inflation, every civil site bid in 2025-2026 demands faster, more comprehensive takeoff. Pilrs cuts 20-hour site takeoffs to 3-4 hours.
Sitework takeoffs fail at the earthwork stage. Cut-and-fill volumes are derived from the difference between the existing topo and the proposed finished grade surface. A correct calculation uses a grid of spot-check points across the site (typically on 25 or 50-foot centers) and sums the cut and fill volumes at each point. Manual takeoffs often rely on visual estimation — "that side looks like it needs 3 feet of fill" — and the error compounds across acreage.
Paving fails on thickness and base. The paving plan shows a parking lot at one asphalt section and a truck route at another. Parking stalls might be 2" surface over 6" aggregate base. Truck lanes might be 3" surface and 4" binder over 10" base. Both are asphalt, but the tonnage per SF is very different. Concrete paving adds another layer — heavy-duty pavement sections might include 8" of 4,500 PSI concrete with dowel bars and continuous reinforcement.
Underground utilities fail on depth and structure count. A 400-foot sanitary lateral at 12-foot depth needs trench boxes, engineered sloping, or shoring — none of which is on the plan. Manholes are counted from the storm plan, but cleanouts, saddle connections, and fittings are often hidden in typical details. Pilrs extracts every structure and fitting, and flags trench depths requiring OSHA protective systems.
Pilrs reads civil drawings (grading, paving, utility, erosion control) and produces earthwork cut-and-fill volumes from the grade difference, paving quantities by section and thickness, pipe LF by size and material, and structure counts for every MH, inlet, valve, and cleanout. Erosion control is quantified by duration. Output supports heavy-civil and site-development bidding.
Existing topo subtracted from proposed grade on a grid to produce cut, fill, and net volumes — balancing imports and exports.
Asphalt and concrete paving quantified by SF and tonnage per paving section thickness pulled from the paving detail.
Pipe LF by size and material (PVC, DIP, HDPE, RCP), structures counted, fittings and connections tallied.
Trench depths over 5 feet flagged for OSHA 1926 Subpart P protection. Trench box weeks or sloped excavation volume estimated.
Curb and gutter LF by profile (Type 6, 24" integral, etc.). Sidewalk SF by thickness. Curb ramps counted per ADA detail.
Silt fence, inlet protection, rock construction entrance, SWPPP maintenance, and seeding quantified per project duration.
From plan upload to verified estimate — purpose-built for civil/sitework contractors.
Grading plan, paving plan, utility plan, erosion control plan, and site details. Topo contours and proposed grades parsed.
Cut/fill computed on a grid. Paving sections measured and tonned. Curb, sidewalk, and striping extracted from the site plan.
Pipe traced by size and material. Structures counted. Trench depth analyzed for OSHA protective system requirements.
Earthwork volumes, paving tons, pipe LF, structures, erosion scope, and equipment/labor hours by phase.
Direct answers to the questions civil/sitework estimators ask most.
Long-form guides with real waste factors, labor units, and bidding traps — written for working estimators.
How to measure, count, and quantify civil & sitework scope without missing phantom items. Spec-to-drawing cross-checks, waste factors, and the common 2 percent errors that kill bids.
Labor units, burden, markup, and the real 2026 material pricing bands. Where new estimators underbid themselves and what experienced shops carry in contingency.
Upload your plans and get a verified civil/sitework takeoff without rebuilding spreadsheets. 14-day free trial. No credit card required.