Restoration Project Management - Project Planning and Management for Ecological Restoration - page 21

we have found that these types of ballpark estimates rarely end up being in the ballpark, let alone
the same city!
We have also found that a certain amount of planning work must be completed prior to devel-
oping a reasonably accurate project improvement budget (box 2-2). Because of varying site con-
ditions and project-specific features, ballpark estimating is just too risky. Certain specialty items
(e.g., dewatering costs, vandal barriers, equipment costs, and remedial weeding) are difficult to
estimate without some details about such issues as site conditions, the size of the area for the
work, the season the work is to be performed, permit conditions, and so forth. There are too many
uncertainties involved in restoration work to enable most of us to develop improvement budgets
without first knowing some details about our project. To do otherwise is to invite yet more risk into
an already uncertain practice. A particular axiom applies: the greater the guesswork, the greater
the likelihood that the budget will change. Uncertainty in improvement budgets can be reduced,
but only with good planning.
Box 2-2. The Bottoms-Up Approach to Budgeting
Developing realistic project budgets is best handled using a bottoms-up approach. This
approach requires that you have some familiarity with the type of work proposed and the
nature of the issues that you'll face with your particular site—and the more details you
have, the better. Begin by using the project cost estimate worksheet shown in appendix 2.
1. Develop a model design that can be used to generate a preliminary bill of
materials.
2. Identify the major project features that are to be installed on the project.
3. Generate an estimate of the quantities of each item on the bill of materials using
the model design.
4. Apply the model over the proposed restoration area, and generate an estimate of
the quantities needed for the entire restoration project.
5. Add in any specialty items that are not contained in the model (e.g., develop
water supply, dewater streambed, repair stream bank, and so forth).
6. Total the quantities for each item of work.
7. Assign a unit cost to each item on the bill of materials (here, landscape architects
and landscape contractors can be a big help in providing you with relevant data).
8. Estimate the labor costs required to build or install each item (landscape
contractors may also be a good source here).
9. Include a list of all equipment needed to perform the work, the amount of time
that you need each piece of equipment, and the equipment costs.
10. Total the costs for materials, labor, and equipment.
11. Add in a contingency factor to account for missed items and for undefined work.
If this is the first pass of the budget, adding a factor of 25 to 50 percent of the total
may be appropriate.