This classification defines bridge elements that are major components of most bridges. The elemental clarification is the common thread linking activities and participants in a bridge project from initial planning through operations, maintenance, and disposal.

The users of this classification include federal, state, county and city officials, cost planners, estimators, schedulers, engineers, project/program managers, specification writers, operating and maintenance staff, manufacturers, and educators.

Use this classification when doing the following:

4.3.1 Estimating and controlling costs during planning, design, and construction. Use this classification to prepare budgets and to establish elemental cost plans before design begins. The project manager uses cost plans to control project cost, time, and quality, and to set design-to-cost targets.

4.3.2 Conducting value engineering workshops. Use this classification as a checklist to ensure that alternatives for all elements of significant cost in the bridge project are analyzed in the creativity phase of the job plan. Also, use the elemental cost data to expedite the development of cost models for bridge systems.

4.3.3 Developing initial project master schedules. Since projects are built element by element, this classification is an appropriate basis for preparing construction schedules at the start of the design process.

4.3.4 Structuring cost manuals and recording construction, operating, and maintenance costs in a computer database. Having a cost manual or computer database in an elemental format assists the preparation of an economic analysis early in the design stage and at a reasonable cost.

4.3.5 Structuring preliminary project descriptions during the conceptual design phase. This classification facilitates the description of the scope of the project in a clear, concise, and logical sequence for presentation to the client; it provides the basis for the preparation of more detailed elemental estimates during the early concept and preliminary design phases, and it enhances communication between designers and clients by providing a clear statement of the designer'intent.