What is the Sierra West Current Construction Cost Index (CCCI)?

The Sierra West CCCI plays a major role in planning future construction projects throughout California.  It is a major factor in quarterly inflation predictions for building project projections for both public and private work.  The CCC Index is one of the only recognized inflationary indexes for California, and has been published in the Engineering News Record, a weekly magazine for the construction industry in its 130+ year of publication. The Sierra West CCCI  is considered one of the most important construction indices in the United States and is updated quarterly.

• The United States Department of Defense subscribes to it for their capital outlay program for medical facilities, worldwide.  The State of California agrees, and many state offices use the Index for construction inflation information
• Various other Counties and Cities throughout the State of California utilize the Index.

The Sierra West CCCI and numbers are used by the entire industry, public agencies and other estimators across the United States.  The Sierra West CCCI  is the basis for the annual escalation increases in the Current Construction Cost Manuals published by Sierra West Publishing and used by OPSC–PDT for approval of the school construction estimates.

The Sierra West CCCI  is an Index which reports changes in construction materials, labor and sub-contractor in-place-costs.  The Index has three components, and is compiled on a monthly basis and updated quarterly.

1. Materials – The Materials Indicator reflects 23 key construction materials in 20 cities, throughout the U.S.  The various locations allows for overall stability of the material prices without regional spikes in demand.  The prices are derived from information taken from the Engineering News Record (ENR) –which is done on a monthly basis.  These are strictly the commodity prices, no overhead or profit.
2. Labor – The Labor Indicator is based on quotes for nine union crafts in 16 cities across the U.S.  All contractors do not pay the same rates, therefore, by using unions as the basis for the rates, the percentage increases are stabilized and reflect, on the whole, wage trends.  These increases generally reflect the same percentage increases in private and prevailing wage work
3. In Place Construction – The Sub-Contractor-in-place costs. Which is the index used most by the State and Federal Government, reflects the actual prices being charged by contractors and subcontractors for installed systems, including profit and overhead.  The unit prices are derived from a variety of contractors, including actual schedules of value, change orders, actual bids submitted by contractors on various projects.  Again, the percentage of increases are reflected throughout the construction industry, residential, commercial and public work.

These components are then further broken into three construction categories, i.e.

1. Concrete Construction – is broken out for all the components used in cast in place concrete construction – and then averages with the labor rates – (54% Labor, 46% Material)
2. Steel Construction – is broken out for all components used in heavy steel construction, and then averages with the labor rates – (54% Labor, 46% Material).
3. Class B – (Wood Frame Construction) – is broken out for all components used in wood construction and then averages with the labor rates – (54% Labor, 46% Material)