Civil Engineering Project Platform

Part of the worlds-biggest-software-project initiative.

An AI-native, open-source construction administration platform that unifies drawing management, RFI/submittal workflows, change orders, and field inspections for civil engineering projects.

Civil Engineering Project Platform consolidates the document control and field communication workflows that define construction project administration. It is built for the teams who deliver infrastructure -- designers, owners, general contractors, subcontractors, and inspectors -- and addresses the coordination failures that arise when drawings, RFIs, submittals, and change orders are scattered across email, shared drives, and disconnected spreadsheets. RFI processing alone averages $1,080 per event when handled inefficiently; change orders can total 5-15% of contract value on a multi-year project.

Why Civil Engineering Project Platform?

Enterprise incumbents are prohibitively expensive. Procore charges $10,000-$30,000 for implementation alone, with ACV-based pricing that escalates 5-14% year-on-year. Autodesk Construction Cloud runs $1,400/user/year. Oracle Aconex targets projects above $100M. Mid-market contractors and civil engineering teams are priced out.
Existing platforms are built for building construction, not civil engineering. Roads, bridges, utilities, and water infrastructure have distinct deliverable types, inspection regimes, and contract forms (NEC, FIDIC, AS contracts) that current tools handle poorly.
AI capabilities in incumbents are nascent. Procore's AI features are largely marketing; no platform intelligently pre-populates RFI responses, classifies urgency by drawing discipline, or flags RFI clusters that predict future change orders.
Vendor lock-in is severe. Most platforms are walled gardens with limited data export. Owners who change contractors face costly migration. No open-source construction administration platform of comparable depth exists.
No platform bridges administration and financial management well. Competitors either handle document workflows or cost management, rarely both. Change order financial impact is difficult to track in real time across disconnected systems.

Key Features

Drawing Management

Cloud-hosted drawing sets with version control and automatic supersession of older revisions
PDF markup and annotation tools with offline access for field use
Hyperlinking between drawings, RFIs, submittals, and punch items for full traceability
Drawing revision delta detection with affected-trade notifications (planned)

RFI & Submittal Workflows

RFI creation, assignment, routing, response, and closure with configurable approval chains
Email-based participation for external parties (no mandatory login)
Submittal log with status tracking: Approved, Approved as Noted, Rejected, Revise and Resubmit
Automatic reminder escalation on overdue items
AI-assisted RFI response suggestions using project specification and drawing context

Change Order & Cost Management

Change order workflows linked from RFI or owner direction through scope definition, cost estimate, and approval
Budget impact tracking connecting RFIs to financial outcomes
Predictive change order risk scoring from RFI volume and drawing revision frequency (planned)

Field Inspections & Daily Reports

Mobile data collection with photos, notes, and punch list generation
Two-step punch list verification for QA/QC
Blueprint location tagging for deficiencies
Daily field reports capturing labour, equipment, weather, visitors, and production data

Document Control & Collaboration

Centralised repository for contracts, specifications, meeting minutes, and correspondence
Access controls and distribution logs with full audit trail
Multi-organisation access model: owner, designer, GC, and subcontractor roles and permissions
Exportable logs and reports in PDF and CSV formats

AI-Native Advantage

The platform applies AI where incumbents rely on manual effort. RFI triage uses project specifications and drawing context to suggest responses and route requests to the correct discipline. Automated submittal log population extracts spec divisions from uploaded documents without manual data entry. Change order risk scoring analyses RFI volume, patterns, and drawing revision frequency to flag emerging cost risks before they materialise. Natural language search spans drawings, RFIs, submittals, and correspondence, replacing the manual document hunting that consumes project engineers' time.

Tech Stack & Deployment

The platform targets self-hosted and cloud deployment to meet the security and data-residency requirements common in infrastructure projects. Offline-capable mobile apps address the poor connectivity typical of construction sites. The architecture supports large file storage and streaming for PDF drawing sets. Standards-based data formats (IFC, BCF, COBie) are open and freely implementable, enabling BIM integration without proprietary dependencies. The multi-organisation permission model spans owner, designer, GC, and subcontractor organisations. ERP integration targets Sage, Oracle, SAP, and QuickBooks; scheduling integration targets Primavera P6 and Microsoft Project. A REST API with OAuth 2.0 authentication enables third-party integration.

Market Context

The construction management software market is dominated by Procore (enterprise standard, ACV-based pricing), Autodesk Construction Cloud ($1,400/user/year), and Oracle Aconex (enterprise-scale, $100M+ projects). Mid-market alternatives like Archdesk, INGENIOUS.BUILD, and eSUB cover subsets of the workflow but lack the full administration stack. No open-source platform of comparable scope exists, leaving an underserved segment of civil engineering teams, mid-market contractors, and infrastructure project owners who need comprehensive tooling without enterprise pricing.

Project Status

This project is in the research and specification phase. Contributions, feedback, and domain expertise are welcome.

Contributing

We welcome contributions from developers, domain experts, and potential users. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Important: All contributions must be your own original work or clearly attributed open-source material with a compatible licence. Copyright infringement and licence violations will not be tolerated and will result in immediate removal of the offending contribution. If you are unsure whether a piece of code, text, or other material is safe to contribute, open an issue and ask before submitting.

Licence

Licence to be determined. See discussion for context.