1. Right-of-Way Cost Estimating Planning Tool Training Guide
TxDOT Implementation Project
Project Coordinator: John Campbell
Project Director: Gus Cannon
UT CTR Team: Dr. Kara Kockelman (RS), Dr. Carlos Caldas,
Dr. Zhanmin Zhang, Lu Gao, and Raquel Escatel
This guide will demonstrate how to use the ROW Estimating Tool developed in TxDOT Project Please feel free to ask questions during this session.

2. Using the tool
The first step is to locate the excel sheet titled ’TxDOT P1 ROW Cost Estimation Tool v1.0.xls’
By double clicking on the Excel icon, the screen above should appear on your computer screen.
If it doesn’t then the security level of your computer needs to be adjusted.
This is done by closing the ROW estimation tool application, and within Excel, clicking on Tool->Macros-> Security-> Low. Once this adjustment has been made, re-opening the ROW tool will result in a pop-up window as shown above.
Right clicking on ‘Start Estimate” allows the user to begin or continue a previous estimate.
Right clicking on “About This Research” will provide the user with a summary of this project.
Right clicking on “Exit” will close the ROW estimation tool.

3. Logging On
Each district has a temporary District ID and Password. The District ID corresponding to your district can be found in the user manual. The temporary password has been set to “abc.”
Entering your District ID and Password and then clicking on “Login” will allow the user to begin using the tool.

4. Previous Page After logging in, the screen shown above will appear.
This screen presents the user with four options, which can be seen across the bottom
Previous Page
Retrieve This Estimate
New Estimate
Delete This Estimate
Selecting “Previous Page” takes you back to first window, where you can either “Start Estimate,” read “About this Research,” or “Exit” the application.

5. Retrieve this Estimate
Selecting “Retrieve This Estimate” allows the user to select a project that is already in the database. This is done by clicking on the project of interest until the row is highlighted in blue and then clicking on “Retrieve This Estimate.”
This option can be used
when entering new parcels into an existing project
If the user would like to modify data that was entered
If the user would like to view the estimate for an existing project.

6. New Estimate
Selecting “New Estimate” allows the user to create a new project estimate.

7. Entering Project Details
In this page, details about the project are entered. This details include:
Project Name
ROW CSJ number
Parcel Number
The owner of the parcel
The county in which the parcel is located
The land use type of the property
Once this data has been entered, clicking on the “Create” button will save the entered information.
If multiple parcels are to be entered, continue entering details numbered 3-6 and then clicking on the “Create” button until all parcels have been entered.
If some details, such as the owner of the parcel is not known, please type in “unknown” and update it when information becomes available.

8. Entering Project Details (cont’d)
As previously states, if the user wishes to estimate the cost of multiple parcels within the same project, the parcel number, owner, county and land use type of the parcels must be entered.
Once all parcels have been entered, right clicking on “Next Page: Parcel Characteristics” will allow the user to enter specific parcel characteristics
All the parcels that were entered should appear in the white text box to the right. If the user does not see all of the parcels, the data was not stored and needs to be re-entered.
It is crucial for the user to click on “Create” after entering a new parcel or else the information will not be stored.

9. Entering Parcel Characteristics
In this page parcel characteristics are entered. Please note that all areas are in Square Feet.
More information about parcel characteristics can be found in the user manual.
Once all information for one parcel has been entered, clicking on “Next Page” will save the entered data and will allow the user to enter information pertaining to other parcels.

10. Entering Parcel Characteristics (cont’d)
In this case, details about the second parcel have been entered. The information in the left side of the screen corresponds to the parcel highlighted in blue.
Once the details of every parcel have been entered, clicking on “Next Page: Summary Report of This Estimate” will provide the user with four different estimates”

11. Waiting Page
Since the calculation process normally takes several minutes, or even more if more parcels are in the current project, a waiting page will pop up to show the possible remaining time before the final report.

12. Estimated Costs
This screen displays parcel estimates based on the newly developed regression models, on the Texas corridor regression model, on the adjusted cost of the most similar property in the database, and on the average cost of a given land use by county.
An estimate of project cost, calculated as the sum of the cost of parcels in this project, is shown in the row titled “Total.”
By clicking ‘Print Report’ these estimates, as well as Project Details, are printed out in an Excel Spreadsheet.
By clicking ‘Print Parcel Information,’ the characteristics of every parcel entered in this estimate will be printed out in an Excel Spreadsheet. This allows the user to check for any errors in the input of the data.

13. Results of “Print Report”
If the user would like to save the results for future reference, the report can be printed by clicking on the Print button located at the top of the screen.

14. Results of “Print Parcel Information”
If the user would like to save the results for future reference, the report can be printed by clicking on the Print button located at the top of the screen.

15. Delete Estimate
This option allows the user to delete projects that have been entered by clicking on a project until highlighted in blue and then clicking on “Delete This Estimate”
Please be aware that data pertaining to all the parcels that are a part of this project will be deleted.

16. Any Questions?
I will now be presenting a demo to demonstrate the details discussed.