ANALYSIS OF SOME FACTORS INFLUENCING THE CONSTRUCTION COSTS OF ROADS

The cost of a highway project depends on many different factors. The intention of this thesis is to analyse the influence of some of these factors. A short outline is given of existing methods for calculating the cost of earthworks. The distribution of costs of construction on different items is then analysed. As local conditions are different and play such an important role, the gross average cannot be directly used as a basis for judging the distribution of costs on different items for a specific project. An analysis is carried out to study how earthwork quantities and construction costs depend on the alignment standard, road class and ditch geometry in various types of terrain. A method has been worked out to calculate masses and construction costs, without direct calculation of earthwork quantities. Terrain description is given as the horizontal alignment of a contour line or a grade line. When the terrain classifications are worked out, and the road standard and specifications are given, earthwork quantities for the project can be obtained from a data bank based on reference projects. Combined with actual unit prices, the highway costs can be estimated. Some reference projects have already been worked out but before this method is ready for practical use it is necessary to work through several more reference projects. (TRRL)