Dávila-Pérez, Juan L.

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    Estudio de la confiabilidad de bases de datos comerciales para estimar costos de proyectos de construcción en Puerto Rico
    (2016) Dávila-Pérez, Juan L.; Perdomo-Rivera, José L.; College of Engineering; González Quevedo, Antonio A.; Molina Bas, Omar I.; Irizarry Mora, Edwin; Department of Civil Engineering; Ortiz Navarro, Juan A.
    The use of various commercial databases is common for estimating the cost of construction projects. These databases contain information about the unit prices for the items that constitute a construction project. However, these unit prices are based on averages of several projects, which do not necessarily represent the real conditions of a specific project. For this reason, the prices obtained from the databases have to be adjusted. In Puerto Rico, contractors do not use the databases because they rely more on their own unit prices from their previous projects. Due to this reality, the research team started an effort to verify whether these commercial databases are reliable for use in Puerto Rico. In the study, the RSMeans Construction Cost Data and the Cost Index of BIDS PR were used. The unit prices of these databases were applied to highways projects that were chosen through the bidding process during the years 1999-2015. The information of the public projects was obtained from the Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority (PRHTA). The results were compared with the contractors’ total prices. In the comparison, the research team wanted to calculate the indexes of deviation that vary in the years of the period, therefore analyzing the feasibility of using databases as cost estimates tools. In addition, a discussion about the identification of some economic and political factors that may affect the activity of the Construction Industry in Puerto Rico is presented.