Fillable Printable Project Management Work Breakdown Structure Template
Fillable Printable Project Management Work Breakdown Structure Template
Project Management Work Breakdown Structure Template
International Infrastructure Project
Cost Estimating Work Breakdown
Paul Hewitt, International Projec t Estimating Limited
Introduction
Construction Cost Estimating Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
The term WBS has become a common term in all fields related to Cost Engineering
including Construction Cost Estimating, Scheduling and Project Cost Control. A well
defined WBS is the backbone of good Construction Estimating Software and can take
several forms including the breakdown of items within an estimate, the layout of groups
within a schedule or the rollup of accounts within a cost report. It usually starts with a
client’s desire to breakdown a tender into definable pay items, followed by the project
manager’s wish to schedule activities of work in a logically and efficient manner and the
contract cost control engineer’s goal to track and forecast costs. In each case a properly
organized WBS is required.
The Phases of a Civil & Infrastructure Project
The cycle of developing, designing, constructing and maintaining Civil & Infrastructure
projects includes many phases and participants. The projects usually originate with a
developer or government body who formulate a concept design and budget. If the project
is approved it then moves on to preliminary design and a more detailed budget is
estimated. Depending on the financing options available, the project may go out as a
traditional Detailed Design and Bid Build project or proposals may be solicited for
Design Build or Design Build and Finance options.
Participants within the Project Cycle
The life of a major international infrastructure project can involve many participants and
span across many years. These projects involve developers, government agencies,
engineers, contractors, operators, environmentalists and comm unity stake holders. It is
essential for the success of a project that all participants within the project cycle
communicate and transfer data efficiently and consistently.
Lack of a Standard Industry Wide Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
The dilemma that the international construction industry faces today is that there has
been no common work breakdown upon which to communicate and transfer data between
project participants. Traditional agencies like state and provincial highway authorities
have all developed their own tender breakdowns, many of which that have been around
long before the creation of electronic data transfer. Construction estimators have tended
to follow the layout of the bids as provided by the government agencies. The scheduler
commonly ignores the estimate breakdown because it does not logically adapt well to the
sequence of work activities. The cost control engineer has to rollup the project costs into
a corporate chart of accounts that even creates more inconsistency.
Current Standard Work Breakdown Structures
Many standard project work breakdown structures have been created over the years. The
CSI (Construction Specifications Institute) format in North America and the SMM7
(Standard Method of Measurement) format in Great Britain are the most common and
have been in existence for over 40 years. These originated as breakdowns for commercial
building construction and quantity survey but both have evolved over the years to include
other forms of construction. The State of California USA (DOT) Department of
Transportation and the Province of Ontario Canada (MTO) Ministry of Transportation
are examples of transportation government agencies whom have standardized tender
breakdowns. The CSI (Construction Specifications Institute), the most popular Work
Breakdown in North America, recently introduced an expanded version of their
MasterFormat ™ in 2004 [1]. This work breakdown was expanded from the tradition 16
divisions of work covering building construction to include 50 divisions of work covering
civil site work as well as process equipment.
A Proposed Standard for an International Infrastructure Project Work Breakdown
None of the current breakdowns, including CSI, fully cover the complete civil
infrastructure project cycle including; development, engineering, construction,
operations, maintenance and risk mitigation. The current CSI MasterFormat ™ 2004
Edition [1] comes closest to covering all the scope of work found in the construction of
Building Facilities and Site Work. It falls short in addressing the unique requirements of
estimators, schedulers and cost engineers in identifying all phases of work included in
major Infrastructure work such as Build Own and Transfer (BOT) projects. This Standard
Work Breakdown attempts to format the project into a m u lti-level WBS suited to
estimate, schedule, track cost and measure perform ance on international infrastructure
projects. The breakdown is also designed to facilitate the data transfer of a standard work
breakdown between common estimating, scheduling and cost control software
applications.
The International Infrastructure Project Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
The following paragraphs outline the various sub-projects and phases within the Civil
Infrastructure WBS.
The Sub-Projects within a Civil Infrastructure Project Life Cycle
Traditional work breakdown structures in the past have only identified the Construction
Divisions within a project. This proposed work breakdown includes all phases within the
life span of the project cycle, including Development, Engineering, Operations,
Maintenance, Transfer and Risk.
1 Project Capital Cost 1.1 Overhead
1.2 Construction
1.3 Equipment
1.4 Engineering & Design
1.5 Capital Cost Escalation
1.6 Capital Cost Risk
2 Project Development 2.1 Proposal
2.2 Financial Close
2.3 Development Overhead
2.4 Development Escalation
2.5 Development Risk
3 Operations & Maintenance 3.1 Operations
3.2 Maintenance
3.3 Transfer
3.4 O & M Escalation
3.5 O&M Risk
Project Capital Cost
The Project Capital Costs are norm ally the initial cost of the project, also referred to as
the initial investment for the project. It is within this phase that the project is designed
and built. Traditional work breakdowns have only included direct construction divisions.
This WBS includes Site & Head Office Overheads, Construction Equipment as well as
Rolling Stock and Engineering.
1.1 Overhead 1.1.1 Site Indirect Costs
1.1.2 Head Office Overhead
1.1.3 Unallocated Costs
1.1.4 Bonding & Insurance
1.2 Construction 1.2.1 Facilities
1.2.2 Site Work
1.2.3 Infrastructure
1.3 Equipment 1.3.1 Construction Equipment
1.3.2 Operations Vehicles
1.3.3 Transit Vehicles
1.4 Engineering & Design 1.4.1 Site Investigation
1.4.2 Engineering Design
1.4.3 Resident Engineering
Project Development
With the advent of the Build Own procurement model the activities and costs associated
with the financial development of the project also have to be accounted for and tracked.
On major Civil Infrastructure projects, separate entities called “Concessionaires” have
evolved to take on this responsibility. The concessionaire is often a joint venture
company comprised of the contractors involved with the project or can be a separate
entity on their own. The activities performed by the concessionaire have to be defined
within the work breakdown structure. These activities are split into 3 distinct phases; the
Proposal Phase during which time the proposal and financial models are prepared, the
Financial Close phase, where the concessionaire negotiates with banks and financial
institutions to procure financing for the project and the Operations phase, where the
concessionaire manages or oversees the operation of the facility. On some international
projects it may take several years to finalize all the legal agreements in order to get to
financial close.
2.1 Proposal 61.10.00 Proposal Preparation
61.20.00 Financial Modeling
2.2 Financial Close 61.30.00 Legal Due Diligence
61.40.00 Financial Due Diligence
61.50.00 Success Fees
2.3 Concessionaire Overhead 63.10.00 Management Salaries
63.10.00 General Expenses
63.10.00 Office Facilities
63.10.00 Office Services
63.10.00 Public Relations
63.10.00 Travel & Subsistence
63.10.00 Municipal Taxes
Operations and Maintenance
In addition to building and owning infrastructure facilities the concessionaire (developer)
is normally required to operate and maintain the facility over an extended period of time.
The concession period can extend for 20 to 30 years. At the end of the period that facility
is then transferred back to the municipality or government agency. The WBS must
include the ability to estimate, schedule and track these operations & maintenance
activities over the concession period.
The staff involved with operating infrastructure facilities can include Management,
Supervisors, System Controllers, Fare Collectors and Vehicle Operators. E nergy
Consumption can include electric power consumption for transit vehicles and fuel for
buses. Consumables include tickets.
Maintenance can include such things as the cost of maintaining and cleaning buildings,
repairing highway pavements, cutting and watering grass, replacing bridge bearings and
maintaining ticket vending machines. Maintenance can also include the labor and parts
required to operate transit vehicles over the concession period.
Transferring the facility back to the governm ent includes demobilization costs such as
cleanup costs, staff severance as well as audit fees required to transfer the assets.
3.1 Operations 3.1.1 Staff Salaries
3.1.2 Overhead
3.1.3 Energy
3.1.4 Consumables
3.1.5 Insurance & Bonding
3.2 Maintenance 3.2.1 Facility Maintenanc e
3.2.2 Road & Site Work Maintenance
3.2.3 Infrastructure M aintenance
3.2.4 Rolling Stock Maintenance
3.2.5 Service Vehicle Maintenance
3.3 Transfer 3.3.1 Demobilization
3.3.2 Legal & Audit
The Construction Phase of Work Breakdown Structure
The Construction phase of the Capital Cost portion of the project is still where most of
the detailed scheduling and cost control tasks are required. Most current WBS layouts
have addressed the direct construction costs in detail. The following paragraphs describe
how current breakdown structures have been adapted and revised to form part of the
proposed Civil Infrastructure WBS.
Summary Levels within the Construction Cost Breakdown
The cost of construction has been summarized into definable levels that can be estimated,
scheduled and procured. These sections are structured to help the estimator, scheduler or
cost control engineer group the project into definable work packages. These work
packages can also serve as subcontract procurement packages. The following table lists
the main summary levels within the Construction Phase of an Infrastructure Project.
1.2.1 Facilities 1.2.1.1 Buildings
1.2.1.2 Building Services
1.2.2 Site Work 1.2.2.1 Existing Conditions
1.2.2.2 Earthwork
1.2.2.3 Paving
1.2.2.4 Landscaping
1.2.2.5 Site Improvements
1.2.2.6 Utilities
1.2.2.7 Traffic Control
1.2.3 Infrastructure 1.2.3.1 Walls
1.2.3.2 Bridges
1.2.3.3 Tunnels
1.2.3.4 Rail
1.2.3.5 Airfield
1.2.3.6 Marine
1.2.3.7 Dams
CSI MasterFormat ™ 2004 Divisions of Work
It is under construction summary levels that the author has followed the basic divisions of
work as defined by CSI MasterFormat ™ 2004 [1]. In the 2004 version, the term
“Building” construction was replaced with “Facilities” construction. Building Services
that used to be classified under division 15 for Mechanical and division 16 for Electrical
were shifted to divisions 20 through 29. New divisions were created covering Civil and
Infrastructure from divisions 30 through 39. There are over 3,000 lines within this section
of the WBS. We have included sample breakdowns of two of the main CSI divisions here
for illustrative purposes. The Building divisions, that remained the same from the original
CSI breakdown, and a new breakdown for the Earthworks level, included with the new
CSI divisions for Site Work.
1.2.1.1 Buildings 02.00.00 Building Site Work
03.00.00 Building Concrete
04.00.00 Masonry
05.00.00 Metals
06.00.00 Wood & Plastics
07.00.00 Thermal & Moisture Protection
08.00.00 Openings
09.00.00 Finishes
10.00.00 Specialties
11.00.00 Permanent Equipment
12.00.00 Furnishings
13.00.00 Special Construction
14.00.00 Conveying Systems
1.2.2.2 Earthwork 31.21. 00 Dewatering
31.22. 00 Grading Earth
31.23.00 Earth Excavation
31.24.00 Embankment Construction
31.25.00 Erosion Control
31.26.00 Sub-grade Preparation
31.27.00 Structural Excavation
31.28.00 Structural Backfill
31.33.00 Rock Stabilization
31.38.00 Soil Stabilization
31.39.00 Rock Excavation
31.40. 00 Shoring
New Infrastructure Items and Activities
For Infrastructure work, where similar ac tivities can be included in multiple items, the
traditional CSI breakdown does not work for estimating and scheduling purposes. For
example; if a Retaining Wall and a Bridge are to be constructed on the same project, they
have to be estimated and scheduled separately, yet they both include similar CSI
divisions of work such as excavation, setting and stripping formwork, and placing
concrete. For this reason, the work breakdown structure must include different WBS
codes for these similar activities in the various infrastructure summary levels. The
proposed Infrastructure Break down includes the following classifications:
Walls, Bridges, Tunnels, Rail, Airfield, Marine, Dams
The following table illustrates the different breakdown required for a Wall as opposed to
a Bridge, although each are performing essentially the same activities.
1.2.3.1.2 Cast in Place Walls 03.11.01 Foundation Preparation
03.11.02 Footing Excavation
03.11.03 Wall Backfill
03.12.01 Mud Slab Concrete
03.12.02 Mass Concrete
03.12.03 Footing Concrete
03.12.04 Wall Concrete
03.13.01 Reinforcing Steel
03.13.03 Dowels
1.2.3.2.1 Bridges 03.21.01 Foundation Preparation
03.21.02 Footing Excavation
03.21.03 Abutment Backfill
03.22.01 Mud Slab Concrete
03.22.02 Mass Concrete
03.22.03 Footing Concrete
03.22.05 Substructure Concrete
03.22.06 Deck Concrete
03.22.07 Approach Slab Concrete
03.22.08 Barrier Wall Concrete
03.22.09 Concrete Slope Paving
03.23.01 Reinforcing Steel
03.23.02 Welded Wire Fabric
03.23.03 Dowels
03.23.04 Stressing Systems
03.24.04 Pre-cast Concrete Girders
03.24.05 Structural Grouting
Conclusion
A comprehensive Work Breakdown Structure is essential for the proper communication
of construction cost estimating and scheduling data between all participants in an
International Infrastructure Project. The Work Breakdown must include all phases of the
project life cycle, from conception, through development, engineering, construction,
operations, maintenance and transfer. In order to accomplish this task, the WBS must also
be available in formats compatible with the common software applications used to
manage these projects.
References
1. MasterFormat ™ 2004 Edition Numbers & Titles
Construction Specifications Institute (CSI)
99 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 300, Alexandria, VA USA 22314
