Experiences with benchmarking of sewerage systems with a special focus on investment costs

Abstract

In February 2002 an Austrian benchmarking project was completed. The present paper reports on the part of the project dealing with benchmarking of sewerage systems, with a focus on the analysis of investment costs of 34 sewerage system projects. The paper explains the methodology used to make the investment costs of the projects comparable. This was based on an analysis of the final accounts of the finished projects. The paper further delineates the results of the project and considers in detail the important influence of unquantifiable factors, such as economic fluctuations and tendering strategies of the successful contractors, on the calculation of the construction costs.

Keywords:

• Benchmarking
• Investment costs
• Life cycle costs
• Sewerage systems

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Austrian Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management and the Regional Governments of Austria for funding the project ‘Benchmarking in Municipal Wastewater Management’.