MCACES and MII Experience

Our team has prepared thousands of construction cost estimates over the past two and half decades, using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Micro Computer Aided Cost Estimating System (MCACES) and its successor system developed for the Windows environment, MII.

Hence, our use of the system is not different than our use of any other PC based estimating system.

• We select items from a database (typically the latest version of the Unit Price Book (UPB)), quantify those items, and adjust the costs for labor, material and equipment to reflect current market conditions and project/construction uniqueness.
• Additionally, we use the MII program to apply USACE escalation rates to adjust the estimate to reflect the costs at the midpoint of construction (using the Tri-Services Military Construction Program Index), and to apply project mark-ups (contingencies, contractor/subcontractor overheads and profit, general conditions (e.g., cranes, field offices)) in accordance with USACE ER 1110-3-1300 and UFC 3-700-02A.

The MII program applies the escalation, contingency, overhead and profit percentages and totals the estimate at the various work breakdown structure(WBS) levels (e.g., superstructure), and/or at the CSI division level (e.g., concrete). USACE standard reports, as defined in the MII application, are produced to reflect the summary and detail costs, labor, crew and other information as requested for submission.

We have successfully completed hundreds of estimating assignments using the MII program and associated UPB databases. Our experience has been that the program is not significantly different than other estimating programs we currently use but it does require additional time to prepare estimates due in some ways to the method in which data is stored and changes to line items are made. In order to limit the impact of additional time needed to prepare MII estimates, U.S. Cost has developed a number of tools to expedite the quantification QTO process. The aforementioned spreadsheets and on screen take-off and sitework tools and our newly developed BIM design exchange tool, have increased our efficiency in that regard, ensuring our ability to continue to meet design team execution schedules.