The Unexpected Power of Construction Estimating
Like many students who entered college at the height of Covid, when classes were remote and connections between students strained, the University of Pittsburgh’s Farrah Alkanaan felt lost and nearly left the Swanson School of Engineering. But the opportunity to visit construction sites and learn how to estimate helped her find her place—and on May 3, she graduated with a job already lined up at Trumbull Corporation, a heavy construction company.
Alkanaan grew up in Green Tree, just west of Pittsburgh, and when she enrolled at Pitt and chose engineering, she continued what had become a family tradition. Her parents had moved to the US from Saudi Arabia to pursue graduate degrees at Pitt, with her father earning a master’s degree in civil engineering and her mother in medicine. Her older brother earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.
For Alkanaan, though, her path wasn’t as smooth. “Two years into school,” she said, “I was struggling academically and personally, and I second-guessed my place in engineering. I almost transferred out.”
Getting out into the field
With encouragement from her advisor she persisted, and during her third year, Alkanaan landed an internship with Fay, S&B USA Construction, where she would gain experience estimating projects. But it was a visit to a construction site that first inspired her.
“This is so cool,” she remembers thinking, wearing a hard hat and steel-toed boots, as she stood amid the structures being built around her. “This was better than sitting at a desk working on AutoCAD.”
Alkanaan had spent so much time on paper and behind screens, but now she was watching calculations and drawings turn into real structures. It clicked. “I was lost before I did this internship. I realized, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
That summer, she met two important mentors: Juliah Seymour, a project engineer at Fay, and Josh Fetcko, a senior estimator and project manager at Gulisek. “They taught me estimating and helped me grow my passion for construction management. They also told me about a student estimating competition.”
Each year, the Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania (CAWP) holds its Student Estimating Competition Championships. Teams from universities across the region compete over a weekend to estimate and bid on a major construction project.
The event intrigued Alkanaan. “I’d been estimating a single project for months. It seemed crazy you’d do that in two days.”
But first, do you want to be the president?
To get involved, Alkanaan emailed the president of Pitt’s Associated General Contractors (AGC) Student Chapter, who was graduating and responded to her questions with a question: would she like to be the chapter’s president?
A little over a year after she’d considered leaving engineering entirely, Alkanaan accepted.
She soon grew into her leadership role with the support of Professor John Sebastian, Pitt’s AGC faculty advisor; Fernanda Morales-Viveros, the chapter’s vice president; the rest of the AGC student board; and Jason Koss (CAWP), Bob McCall (Masters Builders Association of Western Pa. Inc.), and Joseph Neubert (Independence Excavating), industry professionals who donate time and help fund AGC activities. Alkanaan set out to share with members the experience of visiting construction sites. She has never lost her love of seeing construction management in action.
“We’ve visited probably 20 sites—many of the construction sites on Pitt’s campus and across Pittsburgh, including a trip to Pittsburgh International Airport and its terminal modernization project. We even went to an operating engineer site and got to operate cranes and excavators,” Alkanaan said. “That was the coolest thing ever.”
May the estimations be ever in your favor
Were it not for the CAWP estimating challenge, Alkanaan believes she may never have developed the leadership skills as president of Pitt’s AGC chapter. She also would have missed two of the more intense and rewarding weekends of her life.
“It’s a big commitment—it’s something you have to make time for every week,” said Alkanaan.
All school year, to prepare for the challenge, teams learn the ins and outs of estimating from industry professionals who generously donate their time to mentor them.
After months of preparation, teams check into the Marriott Hotel in Cranberry on a Thursday evening in April. They receive a set of plans for an existing, real-life project but don’t know yet what they’re estimating for.
Early the next morning, the lead engineer on that project addresses the teams and announces the specific challenge. With that, they race to rooms where, sequestered, they pore over the plans, delegate, solve problems, answer questions, print out their work and reasoning, compile it into a binder, and, of course, make their bid.
In the end, teams race—sometimes literally sprint—their bids and their folders to the judges’ table. If a team is even a second late, they lose 25 points, a steep deduction. “It can feel a little like The Hunger Games,” said Alkanaan.
Redemption, and well-organized folder
Alkanaan’s 2024 competition with the Benedum Builders (one of the two Pitt teams) didn’t go how she’d hoped. The challenge was to bid on an emergency bridge replacement, and Alkanaan was responsible for the concrete—and she “completely ran out of time.”
The team also ran out of time to organize their binder, an important step. They finished fifth.
While she was proud of the team’s work, it nagged her all year, how she’d run out of time, and Alkanaan worked hard to be more prepared.
This April, they approached the competition differently. For one, Alkanaan and Morales-Viveros stopped at Staples ahead of the weekend and bought organizers for their binder. “We were playing classical music and organizing everything as we went. We were way calmer, and everyone was so supportive,” Alkanaan said, of teammates Fernanda Morales-Viveros, Joshua Zielinski, Tyler Jacobson, Justin Winslow, and William Jacobs. “It was chaotic toward the end, sure, but in a more peaceful way.”
After teams submit their bids and their binders, they must create a presentation and discuss their work. The judges—eight engineers from construction companies around the region—question them on their rationale and provide constructive feedback.
This year, the judges singled out the Benedum Builder’s binder. “They said it was one of the best they’d seen. Fernanda and I were so proud about that,” Alkanaan said.
The team placed second, missing by just seven points to Penn State. It stung, but much less than the previous year. They received a $1,000 prize. Far more satisfying than the money, though, was working together to solve problems and develop a compelling bid, for which they received such positive feedback from industry leaders.
For Alkanaan, this challenge was her last chance to help Pitt to an elusive victory. “I get to graduate together with my older sister,” she said, keeping alive what is a family tradition of Pitt scholars. “But I told Josh [Zielinski], the new AGC president for Pitt, they have to get it next year!”
Through her time with the AGC, through the many opportunities she’s had to don a hard hat and visit construction sites, and of course through the grueling estimating challenges, Alkanaan, a Saudi American female civil engineer once full of doubt, has found her community, a supportive, exciting place where she can thrive.