Managing cost implications for highway infrastructure sustainability

Abstract

Highway construction works have significant bearings on all aspects of sustainability. With the increasing level of public awareness and government regulatory measures, the construction industry is experiencing a cultural shift to recognise, embrace and pursue sustainability. Stakeholders are now keen to identify sustainable alternatives and the financial implications of including them on a life cycle basis. They need tools that can aid the evaluation of investment options. To date, however, there have not been many financial assessments on the sustainability aspects of highway projects. This is because the existing life cycle costing analysis models tend to focus on economic issues alone and are not able to deal with sustainability factors. This paper provides insights into the current practice of life cycle cost analysis, and the identification and quantification of sustainability-related cost components in highway projects through literature review, questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews. The results can serve as a platform for highway project stakeholders to develop practical tools to evaluate highway investment decisions and reach an optimum balance between financial viability and sustainability deliverables.

A multi-criteria sustainability assessment for biodiesel and liquefied natural gas as alternative fuels in transport systems

“…In total, the gap is clear in terms of appropriate methodologies for social and economic assessments that permit hybridization with an environmental LCA to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the sustainability of freight transport. Goh and Yang (2014) highlighted the importance of considering the social and environmental costs in an LCC, but their calculations and analyses lack clear methodologies. In addition, there is a risk of oversimplifying the analysis by integrating all of its aspects into a monetary unit (simply because there are some impacts that cannot be monetized).…”

Overcoming ICT Barriers in IBS Management Process in Malaysia Construction Industry

“…1, the IBS manufacturers and government policy makers were asked to rate the barriers and drivers to ICT uptake in IBS process management from Insignificant to Very Significant range. In order to identify the critical rating from all the sub-components of the ICT barriersdrivers, the mean is fixed at scale '3.5' since ratings above '3' represent 'moderate significant', '4' represent 'significant' and '5' represent 'very significant' [23]. The rankings for the ICT uptake barriers and drivers can be obtained by calculating the critical value of the variables.…”

Sustainable Cost Optimisation Measures for The Lifecycle of Tolled Highway Projects in Malaysia

“…These development efforts are usually carried out in order to revitalise stagnant economies or improve upon the overall efficiency of a country's transport system (Kandil et al 2010). However, the lack of readily available information and studies pertaining to cost optimisation and sustainability has led to the need for further exploration into the life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) of highway projects (Goh & Yang 2010). Highway infrastructure being a vital component of Malaysia's transportation network has led to the government and other stakeholders to emphasize on cost optimisation measures throughout the life cycle of highway projects.…”

“…Although key construction industry players are well aware of the importance of LCCA, the current state of the LCCA practise and understanding in Malaysia is still at its infancy and is unready to be implemented due to difficulty in obtaining sufficient data and generating a reliable LCCA model (Jasmi et al 2017). Numerous studies have greatly focused on certain components of highway project which contribute to cost including pavement rehabilitation, highway bridges, highway management, etc (Goh & Yang 2010) but not many have emphasised on the entirety of the highway infrastructure throughout its lifecycle.…”