REVIEW OF ROAD MAINTENANCE COSTING. THE NEED FOR COST INFORMATION AND THE AVAILABILITY OF INPUT DATA

TIENPIDON KUSTANNUSTIETO - ESISELVITYS TIETOTARPEISTA JA TIEDON TUOTTAMISEN MAHDOLLISUUKSISTA

This report reviews the current availability of cost information on road maintenance measures and road construction investments, and presents recommendations on increasing the knowledge of costs. The Finnish Road Administration faces a choice concerning how cost knowledge should be maintained in the future, because all maintenance and construction activities are now purchased from the market. There also is a trend into larger and larger contracts. In-depth cost knowledge is therefore becoming increasingly external, unless effort is put into maintaining of cost knowledge in the Road Administration. A basic choice in keeping up cost knowledge is the level of specificity of cost information. Should cost data consist of simply tracing changes in the overall cost level of maintenance and road construction, or should there be a systematic process of collecting, analyzing and presenting unit cost information by type maintenance of construction measure in different parts of the network and in different road classes? Unit cost now implies cost information presented as Euros/km, Euors/m2 or Euros/m3, or some other unit of describing a measure. Unit cost is the most precise indicator of controlling costs, and should therefore be actively used for keeping up cost efficiency. The current cost data sets produced by the Road Administration are twofold. On one hand, there is a process of following up cost aggregates at the budgeting level. On the other hand there is a lot detailed cost information in the hands of single experts and experts groups on specific activities and measures. The latter mass of information is not, however, systematically compiled, summarised or presented to larger user groups. Thus, the process of producing cost information is disorganised. Furthermore, the cost data is not collected into any databank, nor is it set available for all users in or outside the Road Administration. The Finnish Road Administration evidently needs to develop a databank on cost information consisting of both detailed and generalised cost descriptions of maintenance and road construction activities. There already exists a mass of cost data in the Road Administration that could be fed into such a cost data management system. This information should also be refined into more general data and published to users. Cost data could also be presented with geographic information systems on the road network.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9517269137
• Corporate Authors:

  TIEHALLINTO, FINNISH ROAD ADMINISTRATION

  OPASTINSILTA 12 A
  HELSINKI,   Finland  FIN-00520
• Authors:
  • TERVONEN, J
  • Metsaranta, H
  • RUOTOISTENMAKI, A
• Publication Date: 2002

Language

• Finnish

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 58p+13a p.
• Serial:
  • TIEHALLINNON SELVITYKSIA, FINNRA REPORTS
  • Volume: 31/2002
  • Issue Number: TIEH 3200763
  • Publisher: Finnish Road Administration
  • ISSN: 1457-9871

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Construction; Costs; Data banks; Economic efficiency; Management
• Uncontrolled Terms: Efficiency
• Geographic Terms: Finland
• ITRD Terms: 155: Administration; 3655: Construction; 224: Cost; 8614: Database; 5911: Efficiency; 8035: Finland
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Construction; Economics; Finance;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00967640
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
• ISBN: 951-726-913-7
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Jan 13 2004 12:00AM