Development of Unit Cost Indices and Database for Water and Wastewater Pipelines Capital Works

Abstract

The objective of this work is to develop a unit cost database and index for water and wastewater pipelines capital works, and estimate inflation in their construction cost. This was accomplished by analyzing tender summaries and progress certificates from the cities of Niagara Falls and Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, that span the period from 1980 to 2008, as well as using data from RS Means construction cost database. This work describes the source data, data preparation procedure, and development of unit cost database and indices. The process first involved developing scaling relationships between the cost of standard components and their sizes by regression analysis using data from tender summaries and the RS Means database. Next, unit costs of reference watermain and sanitary sewer projects and standard components are computed. Finally, a relational database is developed to store the data and to perform the unit cost analysis.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Atif Nazir for his contributions to this work. In addition, the authors are grateful to Robert Darrall, Senior Project Manager at Delcan Corporation and formerly Senior Infrastructure Asset Manager with the City of Niagara Falls, for his expert opinion.

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial and administrative support from University of Waterloo’s Centre for Advancement of Trenchless Technologies (CATT), NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) CRD (Collaborative Research and Development) grants sponsored by the Region of Waterloo as well as the cities of Waterloo, Niagara Falls, Cambridge, and London, Ontario, Canada, and an NSERC Discovery grant held by Andre J. A. Unger.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial and administrative support from University of Waterloo’s Centre for Advancement of Trenchless Technologies (CATT), NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) CRD (Collaborative Research and Development) grants sponsored by the Region of Waterloo as well as the cities of Waterloo, Niagara Falls, Cambridge, and London, Ontario, Canada, and an NSERC Discovery grant held by Andre J. A. Unger.

Notes on contributors

Rashid Rehan

Dr. Rashid Rehan is an Associate Professor and Director at the National Institute of Urban Infrastructure Planning, University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. His research interests include condition assessment of water and wastewater infrastructure assets, deterioration modeling, infrastructure asset management, utility financing, and service delivery.

Rizwan Younis

Dr. Rizwan Younis is Managing Director (acting) at the Centre for Advancement of Trenchless Technologies, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. His research interests include asset management of buried urban infrastructure, condition assessment of water and wastewater pipelines, infrastructure finance, and trenchless rehabilitation and replacement of pipelines.

Andre J. A. Unger

Dr. Andre J. A. Unger is an Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada and a professional engineer in the Province of Ontario. His research interest include: water infrastructure finance; project risk and uncertainty; computational hydrology; and, water resources management.

Brendan Shapton

Brendan Shapton is M.A.Sc. candidate at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He received his B.A.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo. His research interests include water infrastructure finance and trenchless construction for rehabilitation and replacement of pipelines.

Filip Budimir

Filip Budimir is Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He received his B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. degrees in Geological Engineering from the University of Waterloo. His current research interests include groundwater geochemistry and remediation. Previously, he has worked in the water and wastewater infrastructure financial data management and analysis areas.

Mark A. Knight

Dr. Mark A. Knight is Executive Director at the Centre for Advancement of Trenchless Technologies and Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. His expertise includes trenchless renovation and replacement of pipelines, geotechnical investigations, condition assessment of buried pipelines, and asset management of buried infrastructure. Mark and his team have developed industry leading software and online tools for the trenchless industry that include: Pressure pipe calculator for PE and PVC water pipelines (PPIPACE), Horizontal Directional Drilling programs (BOREAID and PPI-BOREAID, and Cured-In-Place Pipe design calculator (CIPPCALC).