PR-2: Lifecycle Cost Analysis

Goal

Determine the lifecycle cost for the roadway project to aid in decision-making.

Requirements

Perform a life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) of the roadway project. LCCA must contain at least agency costs (listed below) and workzone user costs.

LCCA can be performed with manual calculations or by using recommended software (noted below for pavements and bridges). Initial values for calculations should be consistent with existing owner agency policies and software should report probabilistic rather than deterministic results. Where no owner agency policy exists for LCCA, do one or more of the following to determine input values for software:

• Justify the use of any default inputs
• Use historical data as representative values where available
• Use engineering estimates
• Use values recommended for select software where noted below

For projects with pavements:

Perform a LCCA of the project’s pavement structure (comparison of multiple design alternatives is encouraged but not required) in accordance with the method described in the FHWA’s Interim Technical bulletin, Life-Cycle Cost Analysis in Pavement Design (1998, currently being revised). This may be completed manually or by using the FHWA’s RealCost software available for free at: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/asstmgmt/lccasoft.cfm

Use parameters for the LCCA that are consistent with existing owner agency policies. If no owner agency policy exists, use recommended values shown in Table PR-2.1 for the FHWA’s RealCost software.

For projects with bridges:

Perform a LCCA of the project’s bridges (comparison of multiple design alternatives is encouraged but not required) according to the guidance in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 483 (Hawk, 2003) and the software (called BLCCA) developed for this study. The report provides standard input values for a wide range of potential bridge projects and referenced sources for other input data.

For projects with additional features:

Perform a LCCA of the project’s major features (comparison of multiple design alternatives is encouraged but not required) in accordance with generally accepted engineering economics practices. Major features may include tunnels, retaining walls and other items.

Documentation

• A copy of the LCCA and/or BLCCA calculations (if done by hand) or the report produced by the analysis software, including a summary of inputs and outputs.
• A link to or copy of agency policy on LCCA and/or BLCCA if one exists.
• A short 1‐paragraph narrative describing which alternative was selected and the principal reasons for selection.

Public commentary on credit PR-2