Water/Wastewater Infrastructure Cost Estimating

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rudy

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As you may know by now, I'm trying to learn about water and wastewater. One of the topics I came across was "Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Cost Estimating." Can anyone tell me what it is?

From my literary searches (not that many of them), all I can tell is that it's the cost of supplying water and collecting wastewater. Also, are there any free software models for it? Or is it just a matter of collecting individual costs and putting a cost estimation together?

 
Rudy,

Water and wastewater infrastructure cost estimating is not the cost of supplying water and collecting wastewater, due to the key word infrastructure. Infrastructure leads me to believe that it is the construction cost to put the "infrastructure" into operation or beneficial use. This includes materials, labor, overhead, and profit in most cases. Sometimes depending on the project details, engineering, design, permits, inspections, and as-builts may be required as a part. Depending on how defined a scope of work is will determine the accuracy of your cost estimate and will warrant a +/- percentage as a range from your base cost.

The cost of supplying and collecting wastewater (treatment when applicable) tells me that is the cost to operate and maintain the infrastructure constructed.

I am not aware of any freeware for cost estimating. I think that it works best if you spend time building your own program and use historical costs (for project of similar size and scope) or call vendors as a start to put an estimate together. A good source that I use is the AACE International cost estimating guide. I just browsed their website and it may be good to check it out.

 
Rudy,

It's basically what you would pay a contractor to build a wastewater treatment plant, water treatment plant, pipeline, sewer, water tower, pump station, etc. There are many pieces that make up water/wastewater infrastructure.

However, I also do a lot of conceptual cost estimates when doing alternatives analysis to find out which option is cheapest in terms of present worth. To do that we have to determine both capital (what you pay a contractor an engineer) and O&M cost. Most Utilities are smart enough to know that just because an option is cheaper on the front end doesn't mean that it will be cheapest overall.

As far as how you learn to do this, it's collecting information from previous projects, vendor quotes, supplier quotes, etc. It is definitely not an exact science but there are databases of information that you can pull from, however none of them are free.

 
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^What they said. Estimating is usually something you do not attempt until you have been working for a while in that field, because the costs tend to vary with location. I.e., local vendor prices, local geology (= cost of excavation), etc. etc. There are sources of rough information you can sue to get a start on the estimate, but if the estimate really matters (bidding, for example), you would want someone experienced reviewing the estimate in detail.

 
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Hi CrazyHorse,

Thank you for the insight. I hadn't considered that it would include the permits and inspections. The AACE website has quite a bit of standards. I'll do more of a detailed search for water/wastewater within its site.

Thanks again, rudy.

 
Hi Chucktown,

Thank you for sharing this information. I didn't realize all of the pieces that make it up. It seems that the project scope needs to be clear to understand what pieces are required.

Thank you,

rudy.

 
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Hi Dleg,

Thank you for the extra info. I guess alot of it depends on experience.

Thanks again,

rudy.

 
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