Background
At the planning stage of a road capital project, the potential costs of relocating dry utilities (i.e. power, gas, telecommunications) through the project lifecycle are usually not well understood. This lack of understanding can result in under- or over estimation of utility relocation budgets, with resulting adverse impacts to the overall project schedule and cost.
Objectives
This project will be the first phase of a two-phase undertaking. Specifically, it will provide a synthesis of current industry practices for utility relocation cost estimating and scope a methodology for an online tool that can provide reliable, high-level estimates of utility relocation costs for transportation projects. Project tasks will include:
- A review of the existing literature on estimating utility costs for road capital projects
- A Canadian industry scan to identify current methods of estimating dry utility relocation costs, including the level of accuracy and variance of estimation techniques across different categories of utilities as well as across the various climates and geographies of Canada
- Consultation with major utility agencies on approaches to estimating relocation costs throughout different stages of a project
- A recommended technical methodology to be incorporated in a utility relocation cost estimation tool
- A recommended platform for the tool, and cost estimate for the tool’s development and implementation