What to send your estimator
for a water and sewer tender.

The short answer

Send the complete tender package exactly as you received it, and answer three questions:

1. When does the tender close?
2. Which scope is yours? Water, sewer, stormwater, pump stations, road restoration, or the whole civil package?
3. What is supplied by others? Pipe and fittings by the developer or authority, pumps by a specialist, or everything by you?

Drawings

• Plans and long sections for every line. The long sections give the depth, and depth drives the cost.
• Standard and detail drawings called up by the design: manholes, thrust blocks, connections, encasement.
• Pump station drawings: civil, mechanical and electrical, where a pump station is in the scope.
• Road and staging drawings on live road work, including traffic staging if it has been designed.
• The drawing register, so every sheet and revision priced can be checked.

Specification and tender documents

• The specification and any authority supplements it calls up.
• The pricing schedule or bill of quantities you must fill in, so the estimate comes back in that shape.
• The preliminaries and contract conditions: working hours, staging, liquidated damages, defects period.
• All addenda and clarifications, and any that arrive before close.
• Any authority correspondence about connections, shutdowns or approvals.

Ground and site information

• The geotechnical report and borehole logs. Rock and groundwater change the cost of below-ground work more than anything else.
• Contamination and acid sulfate soil reports, where they exist. They decide where the spoil can go and what it costs.
• Existing services information and any survey, so crossings can be counted and potholing allowed for.
• Site photos and anything about access, working-hour limits or neighbours.

Your commercial settings

• Your supplier prices and plant rates, if you want the estimate built on them.
• How your crews work: typical crew make-up, owned plant, and work you always subcontract.
• Your markup approach, or leave it to you and we give you the cost.

What can wait, and how to send it

You do not need everything on day one. If a document is missing, we price on stated assumptions and list them, so you can see exactly what would change when it arrives.

PDF and DWG are both fine. A download link works better than large attachments. Email the package to tenders@watersewerestimatingsydney.com.au or use the contact form. We acknowledge within two hours during AEST business and send back a free fixed quote for the estimate work.