The effects of expansion joint design on bridge life-cycle costs - initial investment versus total cost of ownership

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arneaux Vide L’eau ◽  
Adel Yousfi ◽  
Niculin Meng
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
Life Cycle Costs ◽  
Construction Costs ◽  
Expansion Joints ◽  
User Costs ◽  
Repair Costs ◽  
Individual Structure ◽  
Continuous Movements

<p>The need to maximise long-term value for money supports the consideration of life-cycle costs rather than just initial construction costs when investing in key infrastructure such as bridges. This is especially true in the case of a bridge’s expansion joints, which are much less robust than the structure as a whole yet subjected to continuous movements and dynamic loading. The life-cycle costs of a bridge’s expansion joints may be considered to include not only initial supply and installation costs, but also maintenance and repair costs throughout their service life, and replacement costs, and the user costs associated with maintenance and replacement work – especially those relating to traffic disruption. Increasingly, the effects of avoidable work on the environment should also be considered. This paper will address this topic, discussing issues that should be considered in choosing the optimal solution for any individual structure.</p>

scholarly journals Life Cycle Cost Analysis of a Single-Family House in Sweden

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Bojana Petrović ◽  
Xingxing Zhang ◽  
Ola Eriksson ◽  
Marita Wallhagen
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Labor Costs ◽  
Construction Costs ◽  
Economic Parameters ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Family House ◽  
Replacement Operation

The objective of this paper was to explore long-term costs for a single-family house in Sweden during its entire lifetime. In order to estimate the total costs, considering construction, replacement, operation, and end-of-life costs over the long term, the life cycle cost (LCC) method was applied. Different cost solutions were analysed including various economic parameters in a sensitivity analysis. Economic parameters used in the analysis include various nominal discount rates (7%, 5%, and 3%), an inflation rate of 2%, and energy escalation rates (2–6%). The study includes two lifespans (100 and 50 years). The discounting scheme was used in the calculations. Additionally, carbon-dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions were considered and systematically analysed with costs. Findings show that when the discount rate is decreased from 7% to 3%, the total costs are increased significantly, by 44% for a 100-year lifespan, while for a 50 years lifespan the total costs show a minor increase by 18%. The construction costs represent a major part of total LCC, with labor costs making up half of them. Considering costs and emissions together, a full correlation was not found, while a partial relationship was investigated. Results can be useful for decision-makers in the building sector.

Coordination of User and Agency Costs Using Two-Level Approach for Pavement Management Optimization

2017 ◽  
Vol 2639 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
André V. Moreira ◽  
Tien F. Fwa ◽  
Joel R. M. Oliveira ◽  
Lino Costa
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Agency Costs ◽  
Optimization Problems ◽  
Pavement Management ◽  
Life Cycle Costs ◽  
Optimal Solutions ◽  
User Costs ◽  
Conflicting Objectives ◽  
Optimization Methodology ◽  
Management Optimization

Pavement maintenance and rehabilitation programming requires the consideration of conflicting objectives to optimize its life-cycle costs. While there are several approaches to solve multiobjective problems for pavement management systems, when user costs or environmental impacts are considered the optimal solutions are often impractical to be accepted by road agencies, given the dominating share of user costs in the total life-cycle costs. This paper presents a two-stage optimization methodology that considers maximization of pavement quality and minimization of agency costs as the objectives to be optimized at the pavement section level, while at the network level, the objectives are to minimize agency and user costs. The main goal of this approach is to provide decision makers with a range of optimal solutions from which a practically implementable one could be selected by the agency. A sensitivity analysis and some trade-off graphics illustrate the importance in balancing all the objectives to obtain reasonable solutions for highway agencies. Multiobjective optimization problems at both levels are solved using genetic algorithms. The results of a case study indicate the applicability of the methodology.

The National Infrastructure Reserve Bank

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-48
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Hubbard
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Life Cycle Costs ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Size Of Government ◽  
Total Size ◽  
Reserve Bank ◽  
Deferred Maintenance ◽  
Reducing Costs ◽  
National Infrastructure

This article examines the implementation of a novel national infrastructure bank (NIB) which coins or “makes” U.S. currency to provide capital for infrastructure loans. This approach eliminates bond expense while reducing long-term life cycle costs caused by deferred maintenance and construction inflation. It also addresses the three main issues that have blocked prior NIB proposals by providing a near zero-cost source of capital, reducing the total size of government employment, and isolating funding from national politics while reducing costs by US$75 to US$220 billion and creating up to three million or more jobs annually.

Evaluation of the long-term performance and life cycle costs of GTR asphalt pavements

2016 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 261-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Munir D. Nazzal ◽  
Md. Tanvir Iqbal ◽  
Sang Soo Kim ◽  
Ala R. Abbas ◽  
Moses Akentuna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Asphalt Pavements ◽  
Life Cycle Costs ◽  
Long Term Performance ◽  
Term Performance

Salt marshes for flood risk reduction: Quantifying long-term effectiveness and life-cycle costs

2019 ◽  
Vol 171 ◽  
pp. 96-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Vuik ◽  
Bas W. Borsje ◽  
Pim W.J.M. Willemsen ◽  
Sebastiaan N. Jonkman
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Salt Marshes ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Life Cycle Costs ◽  
Flood Risk Reduction

Probabilistic Characterization of Life-Cycle Agency and User Costs: Case Study of Minnesota

2017 ◽  
Vol 2639 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Akbarian ◽  
Omar Swei ◽  
Randolph Kirchain ◽  
Jeremy Gregory
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Cost Analysis ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Life Cycle Costs ◽  
Potential Implication ◽  
User Costs ◽  
Probabilistic Characterization ◽  
The Cost

Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is a commonly used approach by pavement engineers to compare the economic efficiency of alternative pavement design and maintenance strategies. Over the past two decades, the pavement community has augmented the LCCA framework used in practice by explicitly accounting for uncertainty in the decision-making process and incorporating life-cycle costs not only to the agency but also to the users of a facility. This study represents another step toward improving the LCCA process by focusing on methods to characterize the cost of relevant pay items for an LCCA as well as integrating costs accrued to users of a facility caused by pavement–vehicle interaction (PVI) and work zone delays. The developed model was implemented in a case study to quantify the potential implication of both of these components on the outcomes of an LCCA. Results from the construction cost analysis suggest that the proposed approaches in this paper lead to high-fidelity estimates that outperform current practice. Furthermore, results from the case study indicate that PVI can be a dominant contributor to total life-cycle costs and, therefore, should be incorporated in future LCCAs.

scholarly journals Residential Construction with a Focus on Evaluation of the Life Cycle of Buildings

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 524
Author(s):  
Eduard Hromada ◽  
Stanislav Vitasek ◽  
Jakub Holcman ◽  
Renata Schneiderova Heralova ◽  
Tomas Krulicky
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Life Cycle Costs ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Implementation Phase ◽  
Acquisition Costs ◽  
Residential Projects ◽  
Total Life

The article focuses on highlighting the role of life cycle costing (LCC) in the preparatory and implementation phase of residential projects. It involves the evaluation of several investment scenarios in the pre-investment phase, the choice between variants of the design of the entire building or its parts, and the choice of variants of structures and equipment with acceptable parameters. An innovative method of evaluating the life cycle of buildings is described in the article. This method was tested in selected residential projects realized by Skanska in the Czech Republic. Experience from construction practice shows that the choice of variants, constructions, or equipment of buildings only on the basis of the lowest acquisition costs (lowest bid prices) is wrong. The LCC calculation tool has been designed to model life cycle costs of individual variants of construction designs with different input parameters. It is possible to analyze the components or equipment that have the greatest impact on total life cycle costs. The article presents a tool that evaluates the long-term economic efficiency of the proposed residential buildings in terms of analysis of life cycle costs. The article will also expand the knowledge of the professional and general public about the importance of examining investment and operating costs already in the phase of construction preparation.

scholarly journals Review of digital technologies to improve productivity of New Zealand construction industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2019VMAR) ◽  
pp. 569-587
Author(s):  
Tabinda Chowdhury ◽  
Johnson Adafin ◽  
Suzanne Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Construction Costs ◽  
Productivity Improvement ◽  
Advanced Technologies ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Potential Impact

The New Zealand construction industry continues to face pressures to improve productivity and lower construction costs. With the need to build more houses and infrastructure, quicker, to high quality and on time, there is a need to upscale the use of advanced technologies. Going digital is a solution that can transform the construction industry by improving productivity measures. The objectives of this paper are to: 1 Identify the availability of transformative technologies and their potential impact on productivity improvement across the construction life cycle and, 2. To investigate the benefits and barriers to technology-uptake in New Zealand construction. This paper is a review of digital technologies which analyzes their impact on productivity across the construction life cycle. As a basis for analysis, the digital technologies are isolated into three key productivity improvement functions: (1) Ubiquitous Digital Access, (2) Whole Building Whole-of-Life (WBWOL) decision making, and (3) Cost Reduction Engineering. This study is a literature-based theoretical exploration, aimed at signifying digitization as a function of productivity performance in the New Zealand construction industry. From a practical perspective, clients and contractors may be convinced to invest in digital technologies, increasing or accelerating uptake and more fully realizing the benefits digital technologies could add to productivity performance, growth and long-term success. This study may provide useful information for researchers regarding the development of case studies by analyzing organizations that implement technological innovations, their successful actions/processes, barriers overcoming actions, and sources of new ideas.

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