National Academies Press: OpenBook
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14369.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14369.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14369.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14369.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14369.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14369.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2010. Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14369.
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TRANSPORTAT ION RESEARCH BOARD WASHINGTON, D.C. 2010 www.TRB.org T R A N S I T C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M TCRP REPORT 138 Research sponsored by the Federal Transit Administration in cooperation with the Transit Development Corporation Subscriber Categories Construction • Finance • Public Transportation Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects Part 1: Guidebook Part 2: Final Report AECOM Arlington, VA Donald Schneck, LLC Bryn Mawr, PA Ali Touran NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY Boston, MA Raul V. Bravo + Associates, Inc. Reston, VA Sharp & Company Rockville, MD

TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM The nation’s growth and the need to meet mobility, environmental, and energy objectives place demands on public transit systems. Current systems, some of which are old and in need of upgrading, must expand service area, increase service frequency, and improve efficiency to serve these demands. Research is necessary to solve operating problems, to adapt appropriate new technologies from other industries, and to intro- duce innovations into the transit industry. The Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) serves as one of the principal means by which the transit industry can develop innovative near-term solutions to meet demands placed on it. The need for TCRP was originally identified in TRB Special Report 213—Research for Public Transit: New Directions, published in 1987 and based on a study sponsored by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration—now the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). A report by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Transportation 2000, also recognized the need for local, problem- solving research. TCRP, modeled after the longstanding and success- ful National Cooperative Highway Research Program, undertakes research and other technical activities in response to the needs of tran- sit service providers. The scope of TCRP includes a variety of transit research fields including planning, service configuration, equipment, facilities, operations, human resources, maintenance, policy, and administrative practices. TCRP was established under FTA sponsorship in July 1992. Pro- posed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, TCRP was autho- rized as part of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA). On May 13, 1992, a memorandum agreement out- lining TCRP operating procedures was executed by the three cooper- ating organizations: FTA, the National Academies, acting through the Transportation Research Board (TRB); and the Transit Development Corporation, Inc. (TDC), a nonprofit educational and research orga- nization established by APTA. TDC is responsible for forming the independent governing board, designated as the TCRP Oversight and Project Selection (TOPS) Committee. Research problem statements for TCRP are solicited periodically but may be submitted to TRB by anyone at any time. It is the responsibility of the TOPS Committee to formulate the research program by identi- fying the highest priority projects. As part of the evaluation, the TOPS Committee defines funding levels and expected products. Once selected, each project is assigned to an expert panel, appointed by the Transportation Research Board. The panels prepare project state- ments (requests for proposals), select contractors, and provide techni- cal guidance and counsel throughout the life of the project. The process for developing research problem statements and selecting research agencies has been used by TRB in managing cooperative research pro- grams since 1962. As in other TRB activities, TCRP project panels serve voluntarily without compensation. Because research cannot have the desired impact if products fail to reach the intended audience, special emphasis is placed on dissemi- nating TCRP results to the intended end users of the research: tran- sit agencies, service providers, and suppliers. TRB provides a series of research reports, syntheses of transit practice, and other support- ing material developed by TCRP research. APTA will arrange for workshops, training aids, field visits, and other activities to ensure that results are implemented by urban and rural transit industry practitioners. The TCRP provides a forum where transit agencies can cooperatively address common operational problems. The TCRP results support and complement other ongoing transit research and training programs. Published reports of the TRANSIT COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROGRAM are available from: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 and can be ordered through the Internet at http://www.national-academies.org/trb/bookstore Printed in the United States of America TCRP REPORT 138 Project G-10 ISSN 1073-4872 ISBN 978-0-309-11826-2 Library of Congress Control Number 2010923718 © 2010 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Authors herein are responsible for the authenticity of their materials and for obtaining written permissions from publishers or persons who own the copyright to any previously published or copyrighted material used herein. Cooperative Research Programs (CRP) grants permission to reproduce material in this publication for classroom and not-for-profit purposes. Permission is given with the understanding that none of the material will be used to imply TRB, AASHTO, FAA, FHWA, FMCSA, FTA, or Transit Development Corporation endorsement of a particular product, method, or practice. It is expected that those reproducing the material in this document for educational and not-for-profit uses will give appropriate acknowledgment of the source of any reprinted or reproduced material. For other uses of the material, request permission from CRP. NOTICE The project that is the subject of this report was a part of the Transit Cooperative Research Program conducted by the Transportation Research Board with the approval of the Governing Board of the National Research Council. Such approval reflects the Governing Board’s judgment that the project concerned is appropriate with respect to both the purposes and resources of the National Research Council. The members of the technical advisory panel selected to monitor this project and to review this report were chosen for recognized scholarly competence and with due consideration for the balance of disciplines appropriate to the project. The opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are those of the research agency that performed the research, and while they have been accepted as appropriate by the technical panel, they are not necessarily those of the Transportation Research Board, the National Research Council, the Transit Development Corporation, or the Federal Transit Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Each report is reviewed and accepted for publication by the technical panel according to procedures established and monitored by the Transportation Research Board Executive Committee and the Governing Board of the National Research Council. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, the National Research Council, the Transit Development Corporation, and the Federal Transit Administration (sponsor of the Transit Cooperative Research Program) do not endorse products or manufacturers. Trade or manufacturers’ names appear herein solely because they are considered essential to the clarity and completeness of the project reporting.

CRP STAFF FOR TCRP REPORT 138 Christopher W. Jenks, Director, Cooperative Research Programs Crawford F. Jencks, Deputy Director, Cooperative Research Programs Dianne Schwager, Senior Program Officer Rachel Kirkland, Senior Program Assistant Eileen P. Delaney, Director of Publications Doug English, Editor TCRP PROJECT G-10 PANEL Field of Operations Linda J. Bohlinger, HNTB Corporation, Santa Ana, CA (Chair) Darold T. Barnum, University of Illinois – Chicago, Chicago, IL Sam Carnaggio, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Vienna, VA John R. Decker, MTA–New York City Transit, New York, NY Grace Gallucci, Chicago Regional Transportation Authority, Chicago, IL Judson J. Lawrie, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC Robert S. O’Neil, Robert O’Neil & Assoc., LLC, Potomac, MD Stephen Salin, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Dallas, TX Susan Herre, FTA Liaison Aaron C. James, Sr., FTA Liaison Michael O’Connor, FTA Liaison Richard Weaver, APTA Liaison Peter Shaw, TRB Liaison C O O P E R A T I V E R E S E A R C H P R O G R A M S

TCRP Report 138: Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects: Part 1: Guidebook; Part 2: Final Report is an important resource that addresses the costs for professional services for major transit investments. The Guidebook is a resource intended for project managers and cost estimators working for transit agencies or other organizations in the early phases of planning a major fixed guideway public transportation project. It defines and describes soft costs and provides a new methodology to estimate soft costs based on historical projects. The Final Report presents more detailed technical infor- mation about this project’s data collection, methodology, and statistical analysis. While the Final Report may be used by transit agencies, it will also be used by regional governments, state and national departments of transportation, researchers, project sponsors, and cost estimators. The costs of a new fixed guideway public transportation project line are extremely impor- tant in the public deliberation over whether to build the project. While considerable infor- mation is available on the “hard costs” of transit capital construction (such as steel, con- crete, rail cars and buses, or construction labor), prior to this research, transit systems had few resources that addressed professional services or “soft costs.” These costs have ranged from as low as 11% to as high as 54% of hard costs for U.S. light and heavy rail transit projects. On average, soft costs for federally funded fixed guideway transit projects account for about 30% in additional cost above hard costs—a significant part of the ever-important estimate of total project cost. The Guidebook is designed to help practitioners in two ways: 1. By Providing Information. The first sections supply basic information about what soft costs are, how transit agencies and their contractors estimate soft costs, how the estimates fit into the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts process, and how project char- acteristics such as guideway length or project delivery method have tended to drive soft costs up or down in the past. 2. By Presenting a Soft Cost Estimation Methodology. The final sections of the Guidebook provide a new tool to estimate project soft costs, based on both the characteristics of the project and the organizational attributes of its sponsor agency. This methodology is based on industry surveys, interviews, and an extensive analysis of the “as-built” costs of nearly 60 rail transit projects over the past three decades. F O R E W O R D By Dianne Schwager Staff Officer Transportation Research Board

The Final Report presents the research, data sources, and analysis underlying the Guide- book. To support the development of the Guidebook on soft costs, this report: • Identifies a working definition of soft costs through a literature review and industry outreach; • Describes the current industry practice of estimating soft costs through a questionnaire of the transit industry and interviews with industry professionals; and • Statistically analyzes the as-built costs of 59 past transit projects to determine how project characteristics have driven soft costs historically.

P A R T 1 : Guidebook P A R T 2 : Final Report C O N T E N T S

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TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 138: Estimating Soft Costs for Major Public Transportation Fixed Guideway Projects defines and describes soft costs and provides a new suggested methodology to estimate soft costs based on historical projects. The report also examines detailed technical information about the data collection, methodology, and statistical analysis that was used to develop the suggested methodology.

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