Texas is a huge state. And with that size comes soil diversity, supply chain delays, climate differences, material and labor costs and many other things to consider when evaluating the budget for a highway project.
To account for all of these variables, a University of Texas at Arlington researcher is building a price estimation and visualization tool for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) through a $200,000 U.S. Department of Transportation grant. Mohsen Shandashti, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, is leading a team to develop that tool, which will aid TxDOT in assessing and pricing contracts for major infrastructure works.
"The unit price will be different in Amarillo than in the Rio Grande Valley or in Houston or in North Texas," Shahandashti said. "How much a cubic foot of concrete costs in those different locales varies greatly. This tool will help TxDOT issue the right costs for a certain project in a certain part of Texas."
Shahandashti said soil is a notable example of how different Texas is.
"The amount of clay in the soil in northeast Texas is much greater than in some coastal areas, where there is mostly sandy soil," Shahandashti said. "How to build in that soil has an impact on the overall cost of a project, especially when the huge diversity in precipitation levels is also considered. Accurate cost estimations lead to accurate planning and on-budget construction."
Shahandashti said he will use historical data, then integrate those with some factors affecting unit prices to provide estimates.
"Then we'll make geographic information system applications and visualizations," Shahandashti said. "From that, we'll visualize estimates."
Mahmut Yasar, a UT Arlington professor of economics, is co-principal investigator on the project.
"Specifying and using appropriate econometric models is important for accurate unit price estimates," said Yasar, who is also a Goolsby-Jacqualyn A. Fouse Endowed Chair and Distinguished Teaching Professor. Econometrics is the branch of economics that uses economic theory and statistical and mathematical methods to analyze real-world data. "Applying these methods to estimate prices can help improve project cost assessments and investment decisions."
Melanie Sattler, chair and professor of the Department of Civil Engineering, said Shahandashti's grant has the opportunity to make Texas highway projects more efficient.
"It is a far-reaching grant that could touch all corners of Texas," Sattler said. "Not only can it ease TxDOT's burden, but also avoid projects' cost overruns and decrease their duration in the future."
Artificial Intelligence Analysis
the objective of this project is to build a price estimation and visualization tool for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) that will aid in assessing and pricing contracts for major infrastructure works. This tool will account for the soil diversity, supply chain delays, climate differences, material and labor costs, and other variables to accurately estimate the cost of a project and ensure that it is on budget. The researchers, Mohsen Shahandashti and Mahmut Yasar, will use historical data and integrate it with factors affecting unit prices to provide estimates, and then use geographic information systems and visualizations to display the result.The current state-of-the-art is unable to accurately account for all the variables that come with a large-scale Texas highway project, meaning budgets are often inaccurate and projects can run over. This project seeks to solve this problem by creating a tool that can accurately account for all the necessary variables and display them in an accessible way.The new approach taken by the researchers is to use historical data to create estimates and then use geographic information systems and visualizations to display the results. This would allow for the most accurate estimation possible, and make the results accessible to TxDOT.The target audience for this project would be the Texas Department of Transportation, who would benefit from an accurate and accessible method of cost estimation. The impact of a successful project would be the on-budget completion of infrastructure projects throughout Texas.The risks involved in pursuing this approach would include the possibility of the project not being successful, the cost of the project, and the timeline for achieving results.The estimated cost of pursuing this approach is $200,000 USD, and the estimated timeline for achieving results is unknown at this time.Mid-term and final success metrics for this project would include the accuracy of the cost estimation tool, the accessibility of the tool, and the effect it has on TxDOTs ability to complete projects on-budget.
Score: 8/10
