While student teams worked on ways to construct the featured bridge project on solid ground at the 2025 OCA Estimating Competition, event organizers were securing a solid foundation for this and future years’ events.
The 2025 OCA Estimating Competition was held February 7 & 8, returning for the 10th time to the Nationwide Hotel & Conference Center north of Columbus. While this year’s 10-team venue was on familiar ground, software company Heavy Construction Systems Specialists (HCSS) helped the 24th annual competition be on solid footing by becoming the event’s inaugural financial sponsor.
“This is one event that we previously paid for the whole thing… Before this year, putting on the event came strictly out of the OCA budget,” said OCA Director of Member Events David Rule, who has served as an organizer of the Estimating Competition since 2019. Hearing of discussions questioning the financial impact for the association, Rule said an OCA member company connected with HCSS about sponsoring the event for this year.
HCSS provides civil and infrastructure contractors with estimating, job costing, project management, safety and fleet management software. HCSS HeavyBid Product Manager Amanda Ayles said the opportunity to sponsor the OCA Estimating Competition is a nice fit for the company. “We have been putting investment into our HCSS University Program. So, we looked into the possibilities of assisting with the event, had conversations with Dave (Rule), and everything aligned. We happened to be in a good spot where we could bring some sponsorship money to the table,” said Ayles.
As the 2025 event sponsor, the Sugar Land, Texas-based company’s logo became well-known over the two-day event, with name recognition found in the competition’s program, signs, name tags and handouts. In addition, an HCSS slideshow played in the event’s main room and Ayles provided a presentation on the company’s products on the contest’s final day.
Rule mentioned that while many of the competing schools were already familiar with HCSS prior to the competition, students will surely be familiar with the company’s software during their careers. “Almost all of these students are going to be using HCSS when they are out of school because a lot of the companies use their software,” he said.” HCSS (www.hcss.com) provides software solutions designed for the field that cover all phases of heavy/highway projects – from pre-construction to closeout.
Just as OCA was happy with the sponsorship with HCSS, Ayles liked what she saw during the 24th student competition, saying, “I am highly impressed with just the level of execution and thought process of where the teams are.”
The OCA Estimating Competition provides a real-life scenario for students at Ohio colleges offering engineering and/or construction management programs. The Friday-Saturday competition has each school, consisting of six-student teams, receiving a packet that includes project plans, a partially completed bid worksheet and labor and equipment rates. The students are then tasked with an approximately eight-hour time constraint to perform the project’s take-off, describe the construction method, price individual work items, schedule specific activities, etc. – along with answering questions drawn from project documents. At “bid time,” the teams’ materials are submitted to judges. On Saturday’s second day of the competition, each team provides a 15-minute Oral Presentation and participates in a 15-minute Q&A with judges, which showcases the students’ knowledge of the project and how and why certain procedures were utilized to construct the project.
As a spectator of the two-day competition, Ayles said she left with an assurance that the future of the heavy/highway construction industry is in good hands. “The Ohio Contractors Association’s Student Estimating Competition is a testament to the incredible talent and potential within our industry,” she said. “The students demonstrated remarkable proficiency in estimating, presentation and communication skills in the face of a bridge project that was selected to challenge them.”
Showing the most proficiency at this year’s competition was the University of Cincinnati, which won its first team title since 2017 and now joins three other schools with four or more team titles. Case Western Reserve University finished second for the second consecutive year; and third-place Cleveland State University had its best team finish since 2016. Other universities competing were Akron, Dayton, Kent State, Ohio, Ohio Northern, Ohio State and Youngstown State.
This year’s featured project – which was an ODOT bridge replacement project on State Route 159 in Fairfield County – tasked the students with several challenges, from utilizing the seldom-used A+B bid method, to using a non-traditional construction material – EV Foam. Described as a dense Styrofoam-type material, Axis Civil Construction LLC‘s Luke Gussler said a five-foot-thick layer of EV Foam was used to stabilize the new structure, as the former bridge experienced settling issues due to the structure spanning a bog. “Over time, each side of the bridge would sink,” said Gussler, who was familiar with maintenance issues with the former bridge, which called for ongoing repaving to combat the shifting structure.
Gussler, a project manager for Gahanna-based Axis Civil Construction, and Company President Rob Sharrett detailed the $2.5-million project for university faculty and team advisors on the first day of the event and again for the students on the competition’s final day.
Beyond the poor subsoil – proven by crews boring to a depth of more than 120 feet and still not finding bedrock – the competition’s featured project included embankment issues, construction of a wildlife path under the bridge and a time-sensitive schedule to ensure the road was re-opened for the start of school. Gussler said all these factors made for what he thought was a good test for the students. “It takes in a lot of different aspects of roadbuilding,” said Gussler, whose son is a former participant in the competition. “You have a bridge that you’re taking from one span to three spans – and you have the roadway work, which is unique with the foam. Along with the asphalt work, there was a good bit of excavation embankment and there was a lot of waste dirt removal. It took in a lot of factors of road construction.”
Handling the factors of not only bidding the featured project but also the competition’s timelines and presentation challenges were the University of Cincinnati‘s Dominic Carpenter, Jonah Hutchins, Logan Mitchell, Alison Perez, Colby Sipos and Katie Smith. The students’ winning efforts earned the Bearcats $2,400. 1,800 and $1,500, respectively, for finishing second and third, 1,200.
John R. Jurgensen Company’s Kyle Kluener, Rob Lichter and Mike Ostendorf served as the University of Cincinnati’s team advisors, as OCA members from several companies began mentoring the student teams last fall in preparation for the competition.
“This event not only highlighted the importance of demonstrating estimating principles to the next generation,” said HCSS’s Ayles, “but also underscored the value of mentorship and industry collaboration. It was clear to see how much each of the teams seemed to benefit from the industry coaches they worked with to prepare for the competition.”
“You See” What I See? UC Wins Fourth Title
The University of Cincinnati’s first-place finish at this year’s OCA Estimating Competition was the Bearcats’ fourth all-time win and first since 2017. The four titles moves UC into a three-way tie – with Dayton and Ohio State – for the second-most wins in the competition behind Akron’s five titles.
Here are the schools, listed alphabetically, and the year(s)* they have won OCA Estimating Competition titles:
University of Akron (5 titles) – 2024, 2022, 2010, 2009, 2003
Bowling Green State University (1) – 2004
Case Western Reserve University (1) – 2023
University of Cincinnati (4) – 2025, 2017, 2013, 2002
Cleveland State University (2) – 2011, 2005
University of Dayton (4) – 2020, 2018, 2006, 2001
Ohio Northern University (2) – 2019, 2008
Ohio State University (4) – 2015, 2014, 2012, 2007
University of Toledo (1) – 2016
*Event not held in 2021
OCA Member Participation
Competition Organizers:
Jeremy Angel, The Ruhlin Co.
Alex Licitri, The Ruhlin Co.
David Rule, Ohio Contractors Association
Judges:
Blake Dickman, John R. Jurgensen Co.
Tyler Holden, KT Holden Construction
Bart Moody, Kokosing Construction Co. Inc.
John C. Wagner, E.S. Wagner Co.
Moderator/Judge:
George Palko, The Great Lakes Construction Co.
Project Presenter:
Luke Gussler, Axis Civil Construction
Rob Sharrett, Axis Civil Construction
Job Fair:
Beaver Excavating Co.
George J. Igel & Co. Inc.
The Great Lakes Construction Co.
HCSS
Independence Excavating Co.
Karvo Companies Inc.
Kokosing Construction Co. Inc.
The Ruhlin Co.
The 25th OCA Estimating Competition is set for March 13 & 14, 2026 at the Nationwide Hotel & Conference Center. If interested in learning more about the competition, sponsorship or assisting in next year’s event, contact David Rule at drule@ohiocontractors.org.