Effects of Pavement Condition on LCCA User Costs

Abstract

Life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is one of the well-established methods to determine the cost-effective alternative between different transportation infrastructure projects. Life cycle cost of a roadway alternative consists of agency and user costs over an analysis period appropriately selected. Agency costs include initial construction costs, and maintenance and rehabilitation costs incurred within the analysis period. User costs incur when there is a work zone present and also during normal operating conditions. In traditional LCCA, adopted by many agencies around the United States, it is assumed that the difference in user cost between alternatives mainly arise from work zone costs. The costs that arise during normal operating conditions (mainly vehicle operating costs) are not dependent on project alternatives and thus are traditionally considered to be negligible. This paper introduces a methodology to test the sensitivity of vehicle operating costs to roughness and texture profile quantitatively and evaluate its contribution to LCCA calculations. It was hypothesized that even the slight changes in surface profile between various alternatives may result in different user costs between the alternatives. A case study is presented to illustrate the effect of user costs of normal operating conditions on LCCA analysis results. Case study showed that vehicle operating costs that arise during normal operation may greatly affect the results of LCCA and should be considered, especially for low-volume traffic projects.

Systematic Review of Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Cost Analysis for Pavement and a Case Study

“…Normally in LCCA with traditional practices, the agency costs were considered whereas the users operating cost was ignored, which is more important for accurate calculation of LCC. Okte, et al [128] investigated the resurfacing of the Illinois Tollway project to evaluate the vehicle operating cost (VOC) as user cost and found that the VOC should be considered in LCCA as it is reliable for the international roughness index (IRI) progression model. IRI is the strategy used in the pavement design which impacts the VOC directly.…”

Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Cost Analysis in Infrastructure Projects: A Systematic Review

“…Normally in LCCA of traditional practice, the agency costs are considered whereas the users operating cost is ignored, which is more important for accurate calculation of LCC. Okte, et al [120] investigated the resurfacing Illinois Tollway project to evaluate the vehicle operating cost (VOC) as user cost and found that the VOC should be considered in LCCA as it is reliable for the International Roughness Index (IRI) progression model. IRI is the strategy used in the pavement design which impacts the VOC directly.…”

Economic Impact Analysis of the Application of Different Pavement Performance Models on First-Class Roads with Selected Repair Technology

“…The objective of this study was to evaluate the economic impact of the application of different equations for pavement performance models. The impact of pavement performance models on repair technology and timing is well known [1]; however, there are other economic implications beyond repair technology costs linked to the road user [2]. This paper presents the sensitivity of road user costs and subsequent results of life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to even small changes in pavement performance models.…”