Elements and Ramifications of Varying Financing Scenarios on the Overall Cost of Transportation Capital Programs

This project explores the economic forces that are in play in transportation capital programs. The goal is to inform decision makers so that they can better determine the most efficient means of increasing funding for transportation capital programs without unduly affecting costs. Two factors have been widely discussed in the transportation sector over the last year. First, as we delay maintenance due to limited resources, the unit cost of fixing our infrastructure increases rapidly. That is, delayed maintenance leads to more costly repairs. Second, based on asset management principles, the costs to maintain our infrastructure at the desired level now exceeds our revenue sources for transportation. This project aims to develop a model to show the optimal rate of increase in transportation expenditures over time to most efficiently and cost effectively meet the infrastructure needs. The underlying assumption is that a tripling of the capital program in one year will not result in a tripling of the projects delivered and will, in fact, negatively affect project cost.

• Record URL:
  http://www.uvm.edu/trc/university-transportation-center/utc-current-project-list/
• Supplemental Notes:
  • http://www.uvm.edu/~transctr/research/trc_reports/UVM-TRC-10-012.pdf

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $15455.00
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT06-G-0018

  022958

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Research and Innovative Technology Administration

  University Transportation Centers Program
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Troy, Austin

  Aultman-Hall, Lisa

• Performing Organizations:

  UVM Transportation Center

  University of Vermont
  210 Colchester Avenue
  Burlington, VT  United States  05405
• Principal Investigators:

  Glitman, Karen

• Start Date: 20080901
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20090831
• Source Data: RiP Project 26270

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asset management; Capital investments; Decision making; Economics; Financial analysis; Financing; Infrastructure; Resource allocation
• Uncontrolled Terms: Capital projects
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Economics;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01569192
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: UVM Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: DTRT06-G-0018, 022958
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jul 2 2015 1:01AM