Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 51
16 Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects
2.4. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Publications
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers publications on the Internet addressing the subject of construc-
tion costs included no reference to the term "soft costs." However, the Corps' estimating sources
deal with non-construction costs, and these sources can be used in the current research.
As an example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers document Engineering Instructions--
Construction Cost Estimates (1997) describes the process of cost estimating as prescribed by the
Corps. This document does not use the term "soft costs"; however, costs are divided into con-
struction costs and the non-construction activities costs for real estate; planning, engineering,
and design; and construction management. This document also provides a work breakdown
structure (WBS) for organizing the cost estimate; several categories of this WBS include soft
cost items as defined in the FTA SCC description of Category 80. The document can be used
for obtaining information on the Corps approach for estimating non-construction costs even
though the main emphasis is on construction costs.
2.5. European Sources
Research was conducted to evaluate the European approach to cost classification and to see
how European countries keep track of project soft costs. Sources were reviewed in places includ-
ing Germany, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. It appears that the term "soft costs" is not
used to identify non-construction costs.
However, one useful source was the European Committee for Construction Economists
(CEEC) Code of Measurement for Cost Planning (CEEC, 2004). The CEEC was established over
20 years ago as a European organization in the field of real estate economy. A working group of
this committee focused on the problem of differences between national codes for the measure-
ment of quantities and classification of construction costs (Stoy and Wright, 2006). This work-
ing group created the CEEC Code of Measurement for Cost Planning as a high-level standard sum-
mary for the classification of costs in construction and real estate. Table 5 provides general
categories of costs (cost groups) according to the CEEC.
CEEC's Code of Measurement for Cost Planning applies the codes of Belgium, Switzerland,
Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, and the United Kingdom to arrive at a uniform approach for
categorizing construction costs. In this cost breakdown, general conditions costs (project over-
head) can be found under cost group A (in Table 5). Items that may be classified as soft costs are
found mainly under cost groups L, M, O, and X. As an example, cost group M, "ancillary costs
and charges," is described as follows:
General incidental costs to the client including the costs of models, documentation, copies of drawings,
etc., laying of foundation stone, topping out, inauguration, competitions, permits, planning charges,
connection charges for utilities, insurances, third party compensation, client's involvement, legal fees in
association with construction, compensation payments due to statuary requirements.
The titles of cost groups can sometimes be misleading. As an example, project management
and project administration costs are listed under cost group L, "design team fees." Insurance
costs can be captured under items "779--general incidental building costs, other items" and
"790--other incidental building costs" (cross-referenced from German DIN 276/1993).
Legal fees for land acquisition are under category U. Categories J and N are reserved for con-
tingencies, and category V is reserved for finance.
There is a major effort in Europe to standardize construction cost categories across European
nations. The general approach is not unlike the U.S. approach where the costs are divided into
