Research Article
Mar 1978
Optimal Bid Prices for Unit Price Contract
Authors: Paul M. Teicholz, M.ASCE, and David B. AshleyAuthor Affiliations
Publication: Journal of the Construction Division
Volume 104, Issue 1
Abstract
In this type of contract, the work is broken down by the owner into bid items with an estimated work quantity for each item. In preparing a bid, a contractor estimates the direct cost of each item and then has to spread overhead, profit, and contingency to the bid items, so that these amounts will be recovered when the project is complete. The contractor's bidding strategy is complicated by the uncertainties of the work quantities and which items may be deleted from the contract. To minimize the cash investment required by the contract and maximize the expected profit, it is beneficial to unbalance the bid prices by allocating a larger than proportional share of the margin and overhead to those items performed early in the life of the project and those likely to overrun the owner's estimated quantity. This paper develops an easily implemented model of the preceding problem which permits the calculation of optimal unbalanced bid prices that will maximize the expected net worth of the project for a given desired margin.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of the Construction Division
Volume 104 • Issue 1 • March 1978
Pages: 57 - 67
Copyright
© 1978 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published in print: Mar 1978
Published online: Feb 11, 2021
Permissions
Request permissions for this article.
Authors
Affiliations
Paul M. Teicholz, M.ASCE
Mgr. of Systems & Data Processing, Guy F. Atkinson Co., South San Francisco, Calif.
David B. Ashley
Asst. Prof., Civ. Engrg. Dept., Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, Mass.
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
Cited by
View Options
Get Access
Access content
Please select your options to get access
Log in/Register
Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members:
Please log in to see member pricing
Purchase
Save for later Item saved, go to cart Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.
Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
Get Access
Access content
Please select your options to get access
Log in/Register
Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members:
Please log in to see member pricing
Purchase
Save for later Item saved, go to cart Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.
Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.