Estimation of Representative Annualised Capital And
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Estimation of the Representative Annualized Capital and Maintenance Costs of Roads by Functional Class REVISED FINAL REPORT TP- 14743 Submitted to: Transport Canada Place de Ville, Tower “C” 330 Sparks Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N5 August 7, 2008 ARA Project Number 16731 5401 Eglinton Avenue West, Suite # 105 | Toronto, Ontario M9C 5K6 | [email protected] August 7, 2008 ESTIMATION OF THE REPRESENTATIVE ANNUALIZED CAPITAL AND MAINTENANCE COSTS OF ROADS BY FUNCTIONAL CLASS REVISED FINAL REPORT Catalogue: T22-147/2008E ISBN: 978-1-100-10405-8 By: Applied Research Associates, Inc. 5401 Eglinton Avenue West, Suite 105 Toronto, Ontario M9C 5K6 Telephone: (416) 621-9555 Facsimile: (416) 621-4917 Web: www.ara.com/transportation EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report describes procedures for estimating annualized life-cycle unit costs of roads for different geographical regions of Canada by road functional class. In addition, the report provides data on the size of the Canadian road infrastructure and on traffic using the infrastructure. The work is part of an Investigation of the Full Cost of Transportation, a project initiated by Transport Canada in collaboration with Provincial and Territorial transportation agencies. This is a revised final report of the final report dated March 31, 2006. Compared to the previous report, this revised report incorporates changes based on comments received from several provincial transportation agencies in 2007 and 2008. Most of the changes constitute improvements in pavement structures, unit construction costs for road infrastructure components, and road geometric parameters. Annualized road costs for one-lane, one-kilometre-long road sections were developed separately for the following parameters: • 14 geographical regions – two regions each for Québec, Ontario, and British Columbia, one region for each of the remaining seven provinces, and one combined region for the three Territories. • 2 jurisdictions within each geographical region – provincial/territorial and municipal. • 2 types of alignment – rural or urban. • 4 functional road classes – freeway, arterial, collector, and local. • 3 types of infrastructure – pavements, bridges, and all other road infrastructure components. • 4 types of costs – initial construction, maintenance and rehabilitation, routine maintenance, and winter maintenance. Thus, for example, a separate annualized unit cost estimate, in terms of dollars per one-kilometre-long single traffic lane, is provided for the cost of the initial pavement construction on a rural municipal arterial road located in Northern Ontario. The estimates of annualized unit costs were carried out using an Excel-based computational model. The model links together individual highway infrastructure components and their unit costs and quantities. The structure of the model is modular to facilitate improved cost estimates if additional data becomes available and to enable what-if sensitivity analysis of model estimates. Data on the size of Canadian road infrastructure and on traffic using the infrastructure is reported separately for the 14 geographical regions, three jurisdictions (federal, provincial/territorial, and municipal), two types of alignment, and four functional classes. The road inventory data includes road lengths, number of bridges and the corresponding average size of the bridge deck area, and data on the age of pavements and bridges. Traffic data include Annual Average Traffic Volumes for both passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Annualized cost estimates, road inventory data, and traffic data are based on extensive surveys of federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal agencies, and on engineering judgement. Survey responses were obtained from nearly all senior Canadian transportation agencies and from 15 municipalities. The 15 municipalities included both small and large municipalities, and were distributed across all main geographic regions. The report also compares the annualized operating and capital costs estimated by the model with annual operating and capital costs reported by all levels of government. The results of the comparison indicate that the model estimates are in line with the expenditures reported by highway agencies. - i - It is necessary to pay close attention to the comparability of various highway construction and maintenance costs. There is an absence of a common accounting policy among highway infrastructure suppliers, from the provincial level down through the regional authorities and municipalities, which makes direct comparisons difficult. Updating the data, based on common accounting methodology with regards to construction and maintenance costs, would improve the reliability of any future estimate of highway infrastructure cost. - ii - TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 1 Project Objectives ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Background ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Revised Final Report ................................................................................................................................ 2 Reliability of the Representative Cost Estimates ...................................................................................... 2 Report Organization ................................................................................................................................. 3 2. SURVEY METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 5 Survey Design .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Survey Package......................................................................................................................................... 6 Survey Results .......................................................................................................................................... 7 3. CLASSIFICATION OF ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE ...................................................................... 9 Classification Types ............................................................................................................................... 10 Classification by the Type of Road ........................................................................................................ 10 Classification by the Type of Infrastructure Component ........................................................................ 14 Classification by the Type of Costs ........................................................................................................ 15 Number of Cost Categories .................................................................................................................... 16 4. INVENTORY OF ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE ............................................................................. 17 Data Challenges ...................................................................................................................................... 17 Roads Excluded from the Study ............................................................................................................. 23 Pavement Surface Type by Road Functional Class ................................................................................ 25 Comparison of NRCan Road Lengths with the Study Road Lengths ..................................................... 26 Total Composite Inventory ..................................................................................................................... 28 5. TRAFFIC CHARACTERISTICS ..................................................................................................... 31 Results .................................................................................................................................................... 31 The Use and Definition of Traffic Data .................................................................................................. 32 Data Challenges ...................................................................................................................................... 33 6. ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................... 35 Definitions .............................................................................................................................................. 35 Summary and Principles ......................................................................................................................... 36 Calculation of Annualized Costs ............................................................................................................ 38 Pavement Costs ...................................................................................................................................... 43 Bridge Costs ........................................................................................................................................... 45 All Other Road Infrastructure Component ............................................................................................. 46 Routine and Winter Maintenance