Webinar: Advanced Construction Scheduling and Cost Estimating

Scheduled: Tuesday, September 1, 2026, 3:30 pm – 6:30 pm ET (2:30 pm CT / 1:30 pm MT / 12:30 pm PT)

Author: Avinash Prasad

Successful construction projects require reliable cost estimates, realistic schedules, and effective controls for managing time, cost, and risk. This live webinar presents advanced techniques for developing construction estimates and schedules for building, infrastructure, and highway projects. Participants will examine quantity takeoffs, conceptual and detailed estimates, direct and indirect costs, contingencies, profit, productivity, cost databases, indices, and the preparation of a well-documented basis of estimate.

The course also provides a practical examination of construction scheduling, including work breakdown structures, network development, Critical Path Method (CPM), Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), activity relationships, float, and critical-path calculations. Participants will learn how contracting and bidding methods allocate risk and how project-crashing techniques can shorten a schedule while controlling additional costs. Examples and scheduling exercises demonstrate how estimating and scheduling work together to support sound project planning and management decisions.

Learning Objectives

This Live Webinar course is intended to provide you with the following specific knowledge and skills:

• Explain the role of estimating and scheduling in project control.
• Distinguish conceptual estimates from detailed estimates.
• Prepare and organize a construction quantity takeoff.
• Identify direct costs, indirect costs, contingency, and profit.
• Develop a documented basis of estimate.
• Adjust historical cost information for time, location, and project conditions.
• Compare lump-sum, unit-price, cost-plus, and negotiated contracts.
• Organize project costs using standard estimating formats and work breakdown structures.
• Develop a construction activity network using CPM principles.
• Calculate early and late activity dates.
• Identify the critical path and available float.
• Explain how PERT addresses uncertainty in activity durations.
• Apply project-crashing techniques to reduce overall project duration.
• Evaluate time-cost tradeoffs when accelerating construction work.

Note: This is a live webinar delivered via GoToMeeting. Login instructions will be emailed to you 24-48 hours prior to the webinar and the morning of the webinar. If you have not received your instructions for any reason, please call customer support the day of the event. Webinars are live and interactive, and students will have the ability to directly interact with and ask questions of the presenter.

We provide technical courses for PDH credits that meet Board requirements for Professional Engineers, Geologists and Land Surveyors. This course is guaranteed to be accepted in AK, AL, AR, FL, GA, IA, IL, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WI, WV, and WY. Before purchasing this course, please confirm that your state Board is listed above.