BNI Public Works Costbook

The risk of losing money as the result of an inaccurate bid or estimate has never been greater.

The 2025 BNi Public Works Costbook can help you take control of this chaos. With it, you can confidently estimate the cost of all types of public works projects involving paving, excavation, drainage systems and much more!

The BNi data doesn’t just give you the costs for major commodities such as steel and asphalt, it presents you with precise details for virtually every component used in public works construction. For example, the costs of all different types of formwork are broken out separately, as are the costs of vitrified clay pipe, pre-cast manhole sections, catch basins, trenching and shoring, and much more. And you get this same level of detail for paving, irrigation, excavation and more.

The costs presented in the 2025 BNi Public Works Costbook are further broken down into material, labor, and equipment costs, to give you maximum flexibility and accuracy in estimating. As a result, you’ll be able to quickly and confidently prepare bids, check prices and calculate the impact of change orders. And for each item you are given the man hours per unit, so you can see the basis for the labor costs based on standard productivity rates, as well as the latest prevailing wage rates from the US Department of Labor.

All data in this Costbook is organized in the CSI division format. This industry standard provides an all-inclusive checklist to ensure that no element of a project is overlooked. In addition, to make specific items even easier to find, there is a comprehensive alphabetical index.

The 2025 BNi Public Works Costbook is the first place to turn, whether you're preparing a preliminary estimate, evaluating a contractor's bid, or submitting a formal budget proposal. It puts at your fingertips accurate and up-to-date material and labor costs for thousands of cost items, based on the latest national averages and standard labor productivity rates.

What's more, the 2025 BNi Public Works Costbook includes an expanded section of over 600 regional cost modifiers for adjusting your estimate to your local conditions.