Estimation of Representative Capital and Maintenance Costs for Canadian Roads

Abstract

Procedures are described for estimating annualized life-cycle costs of road infrastructure for road classes and geographical regions of Canada. Estimated costs are total annualized costs required for constructing and maintaining road infrastructure. Total costs include initial construction costs for pavements, bridges, and other road infrastructure components; subsequent maintenance rehabilitation costs; and costs of routine and winter maintenance. The work is part of the Full Cost Investigation Project currently under way by Transport Canada. This project assesses total transportation costs for transportation modes in Canada. Total annualized road costs were estimated for 1-km-long, one-lane road segments selected to represent the entire Canadian provincial and municipal road network. Estimates were completed for 196 representative road segments covering 14 road functional classes in 14 geographical regions. Cost estimates were expressed as equivalent uniform annual costs and were carried out with an Excel-based computational model, which uses quantities and unit costs of dozens of road infrastructure components. Quantities and unit costs were established through surveys of Canadian federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal agencies; documentation review; and engineering judgment. Annualized costs for building and maintaining road infrastructure estimated by the model were compared with actual annual capital and maintenance expenditures reported by Canadian transportation agencies. Results indicate a basic correspondence between annualized costs estimated by the model and annual expenditures reported by transportation agencies, particularly for annual operating costs.