You can spend weeks building a serious estimate and still walk into bid day feeling like you’re guessing.
If that sounds familiar, it is not a reflection of your estimating team.
It is a reflection of the market structure.
On the same DOT or municipal job, it’s common to see bids spread across a massive range – sometimes multiples apart.
One contractor lands at $1M. Another lands at $4M. Same scope.
That spread is not “different strategies.” It’s a sign the market lacks a shared reference point.
[Image: Hero – Bid Intelligence distribution chart (IMG-01). Caption: “Without a market signal, spreads get wild.”]
Most civil contractors are doing what the industry has always done:
All of that is necessary.
None of it answers the question that decides whether you win:
What is the market likely to do on this job?
The data exists. The problem is access.
Bid tabs are public record, but scattered across thousands of agencies in PDF form.
If you’ve ever tried to gather them yourself, you know the drill:
So most teams estimate based on internal costs… then guess the market.
Think about residential pricing before Zillow.
You could still “price a house,” but you did it with limited comps and uncertainty.
Once market signals became easy to access, pricing got clearer.
It didn’t replace experts. It gave everyone a reference point.
Public works bidding is still in the pre-Zillow era.
When you can see real bid history at scale (not just a few PDFs), a few things become obvious:
That visibility is the missing layer.
Do not overhaul your estimating process.
Add a market benchmark to validate it.
If you already do cost + margin, you’re covering the internal side.
The additional questions are:
Before you try to “forecast” anything, start by making bid tabs usable:
[Image: Historical Bid Search list view (IMG-06). Caption: “Bid tabs made searchable.”]
On unit-price jobs, the spread is usually concentrated.
Pick the 10-20 line items that drive the total (asphalt, concrete, trucking, earthwork, etc.).
Compare your unit prices to what the market has done on similar work.
If 18 bidders are showing up, you should expect pressure.
If 3 bidders show up, margin behavior changes.
Knowing this before you chase the bid is a win-rate efficiency lever.
PinPoint was built for unit-price public works contractors.
If you want the overview:
If you want the fastest “aha” moment:
If you want to see where the likely winning number lands:
PinPoint gives players in public works the market visibility they need to bid smarter and protect their margins.
