How it works
Five things, explained properly.
Most pricing tools will not tell you how the number was reached. If you are going to put it in a bid, you should be able to see the method.
01 · Lookup
Find the item, however you think of it
Search by code or by description. 20200100 returns earth excavation exactly; typing “hot-mix asphalt binder” returns every binder course item IDOT has let. 33,166 pay items are indexed.
Every result carries the unit price, quantity, contract number, county, district and letting date, because “$46 a yard” means something different on a 2,000-yard job in Cook County than on a 400,000-yard job downstate.
02 · Weighting
Recent awards count for more
A straight average across 24 years is not a price, it is a history lesson. Every award is weighted by age before it enters the average:
- 0–2 years
- 1.0
- 2–5 years
- 0.5
- 5–10 years
- 0.25
- 10+ years
- 0.1
Old awards are not thrown away — they still shape the distribution you are being scored against — but a 2007 price does not get an equal vote in what you should bid this spring.
You get the weighted average alongside the median, p25, p75, minimum and maximum. The spread is often more useful than the midpoint.
03 · Inflation
Translated into today’s money
Adjustment uses FHWA’s National Highway Construction Cost Index, applied quarterly and mapped per IDOT division — earthwork and structural steel have not moved at the same rate, and treating them as one number hides exactly the thing you need to see.
Earth excavation is the plain example: a median of $10.20 a cubic yard in 2003 and $50.00 in 2026. Nearly five times, over a period when general inflation ran closer to one and three-quarters.
04 · Region
Illinois history, anywhere you bid
Illinois is the baseline at 1.0. RSMeans-style multipliers cover all 50 states and DC, so an Illinois award record still tells you something useful about a job in Texas or Ohio.
This is an adjustment, not a substitute for local award data, and the product says so. Raw awarded prices from other state DOTs are on the roadmap.
05 · Confidence
How much to trust the number
Every price carries its percentile rank against the full historical distribution for that item. A tight distribution over many recent awards is a number you can lean on. A handful of awards spread across an order of magnitude is a number that needs a phone call.
The point is not to give you one figure and pretend it is certain. It is to tell you which figures deserve a second look before they go into a bid.
06 · Estimates
Build the whole thing, not one line
Create a project, add pay items with quantities, and every line prices itself using the weighting, inflation and regional settings you chose. Change the target state or the letting date and the whole estimate recalculates.
Override any line by hand when you know something the data does not. Export to CSV when you are done.
Want the full method, with the formulas and a worked example? Read the methodology.
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