DEVELOPMENT OF A PRELIMINARY COST ESTIMATION METHOD FOR WATER TREATMENT PLANTS By JWALA RAJ SHARMA Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN CIVIL ENGINEERING THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON MAY 2010 Copyright © 2010 by Jwala Raj Sharma All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my appreciation for Dr. Mohammad Najafi, Ph.D., P.E., Director of Center for Underground Research and Education (CUIRE) and Assistant Professor, The University of Texas at Arlington, for his continuous and invaluable guidance, support, and encouragement during my graduate studies, and research works. It has been a pleasure working under him in various research projects including this thesis. I wish to thank Dr. Syed R. Qasim, Professor Emeritus, for his special guidance during the research project which this thesis report is based on. I wish to acknowledge the members of my graduate committee, Dr. Melanie L. Sattler, P.E., and Dr. Hyeok Choi for serving on my committee and their review and suggestions for improvement of the thesis report. A special thanks to my father Murali Prasad Sharma, and mother Geeta Sharma, to whom this thesis report is dedicated. Lastly, I wish to thank my wife, Srishti Pathak, for her love, support, and patience throughout my graduate work. March 25, 2010 iii ABSTRACT DEVELOPMENT OF A PRELIMINARY COST ESTIMATION METHOD FOR WATER TREATMENT PLANTS Jwala Raj Sharma, M.S. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2010 Supervising Professor: Dr. Mohammad Najafi Reliable cost estimates for construction, and operation and maintenance (O&M) of water treatment plants are essential for their project planning and design. During the planning phases of the project, preliminary cost estimates are developed for major project components, and for screening of alternatives. Construction and O&M cost curves are widely used for developing preliminary cost estimates. This method is time consuming and there is possibility of human errors. Therefore, for this thesis, construction, and O&M cost equations were developed considering historical cost data for different unit operations and processes involved in a water treatment plant. These equations were developed from historical cost data and can be used to develop preliminary cost estimate for different alternative process trains of a water treatment project. The historical cost data were updated to September 2009 costs by using Engineering News Record (ENR) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) cost indexes, and September 2009 prices of energy and labor. Use of single cost index to further update construction and O&M costs provides a simple and straight forward method for future cost updating using ENR construction and building cost indexes. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................. iii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .......................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................................... ix Chapter Page 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Need Statement .................................................................................................................................. 2 1.3 Objectives ........................................................................................................................................... 3 1.4 Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 3 1.5 Thesis Organization ............................................................................................................................ 3 1.6 Expected Outcome ............................................................................................................................. 4 1.7 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................................... 4 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................................................................. 5 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 Water Treatment Plants and Their Processes .................................................................................... 5 2.2.1 Water Quality ............................................................................................................................... 5 2.2.2 Water Treatment System ............................................................................................................ 6 2.2.3 Unit Operations and Processes................................................................................................... 7 2.3 Water Treatment Plant Cost Data .................................................................................................... 23 2.4 Equation Generation ......................................................................................................................... 23 2.5 Cost Update ...................................................................................................................................... 24 2.5.1 The Engineering News Record (ENR) Indexes ......................................................................... 25 2.5.2 Indexes Applicable for Update of Cost ...................................................................................... 26 2.5.3 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Indexes ................................................................................. 26 2.6 Present worth and annual equivalent worth calculation ................................................................... 27 2.7 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................................. 28 3 METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................................... 29 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 29 3.2 Comparison of Cost Update Methods .............................................................................................. 29 v 3.2.1 Single Index ............................................................................................................................... 29 3.2.2 Multiple Indexes ........................................................................................................................ 29 3.2.3 Controlled Single Index ............................................................................................................. 29 3.3 Update of Construction and O&M Cost Data.................................................................................... 30 3.4 Development of Cost Equations ....................................................................................................... 31 3.5 Use of Microsoft Excel™ for Regression Analysis ........................................................................... 31 3.6 Excel™ Template to Prepare Preliminary Cost Estimate of Water Treatment Plant ....................... 32 3.7 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................................................. 33 4 RESEARCH RESULTS ............................................................................................................................ 34 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 34 4.2 Comparison of Cost Update Methods .............................................................................................. 34 4.3 Generalized Construction Cost Equations ........................................................................................ 34 4.3.1 Generalized Operation and Maintenance Cost Equations ........................................................ 37 4.4 Illustration.......................................................................................................................................... 59 4.5 Excel™ Template for Preliminary Cost Estimate of 1 mgd to 200 mgd Water Treatment Plants .... 61 4.5.1 Project Details ........................................................................................................................... 61 4.5.2 Unit Operation and Processes .................................................................................................. 62 4.5.3 Summary of Capital Costs ........................................................................................................