CAWP hosted the 5th Annual CAWP Student Estimating Competition virtually February 24-26, 2021. Seven teams from four universities participated in this competition, which was developed to showcase the benefits and opportunities the heavy-highway construction industry has to offer. It was an exciting two days with teams from Carnegie Mellon University, Penn State University – University Park, University of Pittsburgh, and University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown participating in the competition.

The competition began with the student teams receiving initial competition instructions and information on Wednesday night both in hard copy and digitally. On Thursday, the teams were given pre-job documents and attended a virtual pre-bid meeting. The teams then spent the day preparing their bids and schedule. There was a race to the finish as teams submitted their bid forms at 5:00 p.m. and supporting documents by 6:00 p.m. On Friday, the teams were allotted 30 minutes to present their process and an explanation of how they arrived at their final bid to a panel of judges. At the end of the day, scores from both the actual bid and the presentation were combined to determine the winning teams of the competition.

TEAM ADVISORS

Thank you to the following team advisors, who put in weeks of work behind the scenes and with the student teams in preparation for this event.

Carnegie Mellon University
Kevin Duris, Trumbull Corporation

Penn State University – University Park
Evan Ring, Brayman Construction Corporation

University of Pittsburgh
Dan Bruener, Kurt Karanovich, Sylvia Wolfe, Joseph B. Fay Co.

University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
Josh Fetcko, Plum Contracting, Inc.

COMPETITION JUDGES

Thank you to the following competition judges for volunteering their time and expertise to evaluate the student teams in their presentations.

Justin Fox, Independence Excavating, Inc.

Harry Hardman, Trumbull Corporation

Paul Hartley, Fay

Russ Hathaway, Michael Facchiano Contracting, Inc.

Chris Konopka, Mascaro Contracting, LP

Rich Mannarino, Brayman Construction Corporation

Brian Miller, Plum Contracting, Inc.