A price has a stage and a scope.
Historical bid unit prices are amounts proposed for specified work at bidding. They are neither a contractor’s internal cost breakdown nor a record of final payment. An awarded amount and a final paid amount describe different events. This collection contains bid observations.
A line does not describe the whole job.
Mobilization, traffic control and other separately paid items may sit elsewhere in a bid schedule. Taxes, risk, overhead and profit are not reliably recoverable from a single unit price. BidFigures does not add assumed allowances to your worksheet.
Quantities can change.
The bid quantity supports the original proposal. Final installed quantities, approved changes and contract administration can change payment. A unit bid multiplied by a planning quantity is a historical comparison scenario, not a forecast of the final invoice.
Time and place still matter.
All prices here are nominal dollars from their bid dates. We do not adjust for inflation. A statewide agency item also does not represent a household driveway quote: site access, scale, specifications and purchasing conditions can be different.
Use the subtotal accurately.
The worksheet reports a Matched-items subtotal and the number of rows it covers. Unmatched or insufficient-sample rows are listed separately. The sum of P25 or P75 scenarios is not a confidence interval for the entire project.
Primary reference: Caltrans cost-data field help ↗