Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs (2016)

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NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Page 44 Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET CHAPTER 3 A GUIDED TOUR OF THE LIFE- CYCLE COST ESTIMATION TOOL This chapter provides a guide to using the Life-Cycle Cost Estimation Tool (LCCET). Section 3.1 provides an overview of the LCCET, its contents, and how to use the tool. This is followed by several sections that describe in more detail the individual worksheets within the LCCET. Section 3.2 describes the worksheets that contain information on the LCCET itself and on the particular projects for which the LCCET could be used. Section 3.3 describes the parameters worksheets; these contain parameters that are used across all alternatives being analyzed, such as discount rate and value of time. Section 3.4 describes how data on the alternatives to be analyzed are entered into the LCCET. Section 3.5 describes the outputs produced by the LCCET. Note: During the development of this tool, Microsoft issued software updates for Microsoft Excel that affect the operation of the macros in the tool. For the LCCET to function properly, users must have the most recent Microsoft Excel updates installed on their computer. Additional information regarding these updates and a link to access the updates is provided in Appendix B. 3.1. OVERVIEW 3.1.1. ORGANIZATION OF THE LCCET The LCCET consists of a number of individual worksheets as shown in Table 3-1. • Introduction worksheet – This sheet provides an overview of the LCCET, the TRB disclaimer, a description of the color scheme using throughout the tool, and a brief description of each worksheet. • OrganizationInformation worksheet – This sheet summarizes information on the organization and the project name. • CostParameters worksheet – This sheet summarizes the costs that will be consistently applied across all project alternatives. This worksheet contains default values for all costs. These default values may be overridden by the user to reflect values that are more realistic for the location. • GHG.Costs worksheet – This sheet provides parameters for greenhouse estimation. Greenhouse gas costs reside on a separate sheet because most estimates of the social cost of greenhouse gases vary by year; and current federal standards prescribe a fixed discount rate for greenhouse gases, which may vary from the discount rate used for other costs in the LCCET. • DemandParameters worksheet – This sheet details the flow profiles applied to all alternatives by mode. The purpose of this sheet is to convert peak hour data provided by the user into annual values so

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Page 45 that various inputs are in a consistent format. This contains default values for demand profiles, which may be overridden by the user. • Alternatives_MasterList Worksheet – This sheet is used to manage alternatives. This allows the analyst to add or remove alternatives and sets up the basic sheet titles. • BaseCase worksheet: This worksheet contains costs for the base case and are used to establish a reference point for calculating benefits. • Alternatives worksheets: Costs for each alternative other than the Base Case are entered in a separate worksheet for each alternative. • Outputs worksheet: This sheet is used to compile the summary information within the Net Present Value Table for each alternative. This sheet provides a plot of the results and a comparison. • Auxiliary worksheets: These worksheets maintain information that is used by the Excel macros in the LCCET. These sheets should only be modified if the user is familiar with the VBA routines used in the LCCET. Incomplete modifications will cause the LCCET to not function properly. Table 3-1. Worksheets in LCCET Worksheet name Purpose Introduction • Introduction and overview to LCCET • List of worksheets and their functions OrganizationInformation • Agency information • Project information CostParameters • Discount rate for benefit-cost analysis • Unit costs: value of time, cost of crashes, etc. GHG.Costs • Discounted unit costs of greenhouse gas emissions Demand parameters • Demands and vehicle occupancies for opening year, end year, and any interim years Alternatives_MasterList • Master list of all alternatives, with brief descriptions • Allows user to add or delete alternatives BaseCase • Cost information for base case: i.e., the reference alternative Alternative_1 … n • Cost information for alternatives 1 to n Outputs • Tabular and graphical summary of results Auxiliary worksheets NumericValues UserSelections FormulaTemplates Messages • Sheets with supplementary information for running the LCCET program code. These sheets should not be modified unless the user is familiar with the VBA routines used in the LCCET.

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Page 46 Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET 3.1.2. USING THE LCCET The following is a brief overview on how to use the LCCET: 1. In the OrganizationInformation worksheet enter the organization and project information. 2. Set up the cost parameters in the CostParameters worksheet. 3. If user-defined values for greenhouse gas emissions are to be used, enter the values in the GHG.Costs worksheet. 4. Enter demand information in the DemandParameters worksheet. Run the macro to set up the sheet by clicking the Create Demand Profile button on the sheet. 5. Define the alternatives in the Alternatives_MasterList worksheet by clicking on the Add Alternative button and entering the information for each alternative in the table. 6. For each alternative: 6.1. Go to the worksheet for that alternative. 6.2. Enter the year information in the top part of the worksheet. 6.2.1. Note: The year information entered on the alternative worksheets needs to have a corresponding entry on the demand parameters worksheet. 6.3. Click the Setup Worksheet button to set up demand information for the alternative. 6.3.1. Note: The calculations for each alternative WILL NOT WORK unless each alternative worksheet is set up properly by clicking the Setup Worksheet button. 6.4. Enter information on costs, travel times/delays, safety, and emissions for the alternative. 7. When information for all alternatives has been entered: 7.1. Go to the Outputs worksheet. 7.2. Click on the Compile Analysis Summary button on the worksheet. This will create a table of costs and benefits for each alternative as well as a graph that gives a side-by-side comparison of the net present values of costs for each alternative. The following sections discuss the individual worksheets in the LCCET in more detail. 3.2. INFORMATION WORKSHEETS 3.2.1. INTRODUCTION WORKSHEET The introduction worksheet (Figure 3-1) provides an overall guide to the LCCET. The legend section shows the color scheme used throughout the LCCET. This is followed by a listing of the worksheets in the LCCET and their functions.

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Page 47 Figure 3-1. Introduction worksheet 3.2.2. ORGANIZATION INFORMATION WORKSHEET The organization information worksheet (Figure 3-2) is used for reference purposes only. Any additional documentation may also be entered in this worksheet. Figure 3-2. Organization information worksheet 3.3. PARAMETERS WORKSHEETS 3.3.1. OVERVIEW The parameters worksheets include the following: Introduction & overview Legend List of worksheets

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Page 48 Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET • CostParameters • GHG.Costs • DemandParameters These worksheets provide information that is used to estimate the costs for all alternatives. Each parameters worksheet provides default values based on national data, but the user may override these values. 3.3.2. COST PARAMETERS WORKSHEET The CostParameters worksheet is shown in Figure 3-3. This provides the unit cost data that are used to calculate costs for each alternative. Figure 3-3. Cost parameters worksheet The worksheet includes the following sections: • Base year for discounting. All costs in the LCCET will be discounted to this year. The base year will typically be the year in which the analysis is done. Another way to determine the base year is to set it to the earliest year in which planning and construction begins for the alternatives. • Discount rate. The discount rate is the interest rate that is used to discount all costs to present value. The discount rate is typically set to the marginal real return on capital (i.e., exclusive of inflation) plus a factor to cover risk. The recommended discount rate from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for long-term capital projects between 2005 and 2012 has varied between 3% and 4% (17). • Value of time. The value of time represents the average tradeoff that travelers are willing to make between travel time and costs. The current recommended value of time by USDOT for passenger trips is half the

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Page 49 value of the hourly wage rate (18). The default value is based on the national average hourly wage rate, but the user may override this value to reflect the average hourly wage rate in a specific metropolitan region. Available evidence on value of time suggests that the value of time for non-work trips may be lower than the value for work trips; hence, the user may choose to set a different value of time for off-peak trips. The recommended value of time for trucks is 100 percent of a truck driver’s hourly wage (18). The default value is set to the national average, but the user may override this to more accurately represent local conditions. • Crashes. The user may choose among several categories for defining crash costs: KABCO (five types of crashes rated by severity); fatality, injury, or property damage only (three types of crashes rated by severity); total crashes; or a user-defined set of categories. Default values are provided for the first three categories; these may be overridden by the user. • Greenhouse gases. These are the unit costs of greenhouse gas emissions in dollars per metric ton of CO2 equivalent emissions. The default values for greenhouse gas costs are the current federally recommended values, but the user may override these. Greenhouse gas costs are contained in a separate worksheetGHG.Costs (Figure 3-4) because greenhouse gas costs typically vary from year to year and a separate discount rate is used. Note also that the GHG.Costs worksheet provides a means for the user to convert greenhouse gas costs into current year dollars using consumer price indices (CPI). CPI data can be obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics web page (19). • Criteria pollutant costs. The unit costs of criteria pollutants may be provided by the main pollutant types, or the user may also define the categories to be used. Default values are provided for the main pollutant types, but these may be overridden by the user.

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Page 50 Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Figure 3-4. Greenhouse gas costs worksheet 3.3.3. DEMAND PARAMETERS 3.3.3.1. Overview The DemandParameters worksheet provides for the input of total traffic demand entering the study area. As noted in Chapter 2, the LCCET is designed to be flexible with respect to the configuration of the system being studied. A cordon line should be drawn around the entire system being studied such that the traffic demand within the cordon is the same across all alternatives. For a single intersection, the total traffic demand is the sum of the demand on all approaches to the intersection. For multiple intersections being studied as a system, the total traffic demand is the sum of all demands entering the system at the cordon line. Demands are broken down by hour of the year to allow calculation of hour-by- hour average travel times (or delays) through the intersection. All values can be overridden by the user. An overview of the DemandParameters worksheet is shown in Figure 3-5. The DemandParameters worksheet contains the following sections: • User inputs: These are required or optional user inputs that are described in more detail in Section 3.3.3.2 below. • Demand profiles: Default demand profiles are provided by facility type by month of year, day of week, and hour of day. These are used to

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Page 51 convert Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) input by the user to hourly demands. The user may override these profiles if so desired. • Hourly demand: Hourly demands are calculated from AADT and the hourly demand profiles. Figure 3-5. Demand parameters worksheet: overview The demand profiles are set up as follows: 1. Enter the user inputs as described in Section 3.3.3.2 below. User inputs include selecting a facility type; the demand profiles for that facility type will be used to create hourly demands. 2. (Optional) If specific local information on hourly demand profiles is available, the user may override the default profiles provided in the sheet. 3. (Optional) The user may elect to run an adjustment procedure so that the hourly profiles match the peak hour demands that were used for operations analysis of the intersection. 4. Click on the Create Demand Profile button to create hourly demand profiles for the selected years. 3.3.3.2. User inputs User inputs consists of two subsections. The first subsection (Figure 3-6) provides for defining the peak periods; these are the times of day during which the peak period value of time will be applied. This subsection also includes an option for adjusting the demand profiles so that the peak hour demand from the demand profile matches the demand used to calculate the travel time (or delay) measures through the study area as part of the User inputs Demand profiles: • By weekday • By month • By hour Hourly demand

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Page 52 Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET operations analysis. If the adjustment is applied by selecting “yes” in the box, the table shows the results of the adjustment. Figure 3-6. Demand parameters worksheet: peak period definition and adjustments The second subsection of user inputs (Figure 3-7) contains the demands that are used to calculate the demand profiles. The data entered in this section apply to the total of all flows entering the study area at the cordon line. Figure 3-7. Demand parameters worksheet: demands and setup Demands are input separately for each analysis year. Demand data will typically be derived from a travel demand modelespecially for future yearsalthough other methods can also be used to derive demands for future years. At a minimum, demands must be specified for each of the following years: • Opening year: This is the year that an alternative begins operating. It may happen that different alternatives may have different opening years such as, for example, in the case that one or more alternatives have longer construction periods. In such cases, demands must be specified for each different opening year. • End year: This is the end year, or the assumed lifetime of the alternative. In many cases all alternatives will be assumed to have the same end year.

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Page 53 But, in each case where an alternative has an end year that is different from other alternatives, demands must be provided for the end year for that alternative. Demands may optionally be specified for one or more interim years between the beginning and end year. Yearly demands may be specified in any order in the DemandParameters worksheet, although for documentation purposes it may be better to specify demands in chronological order. If interim years are used, these should be entered in chronological order. Uniform exponential growth is applied between all user-specified years. The following bullets defines key terms used in the worksheets: • AADT: Annual average daily traffic through the intersection in vehicles per day. • AM and PM peak hour volumes: These are the volumes that were used in the traffic operations analysis. These volumes must be the same as the volumes that were used to calculate intersection travel times or delays. • Weekend peak hour volumes (optional): These may be specified by the user if weekend demand is expected to differ significantly from a typical demand profile. • Average annual % trucks: Average percentage of trucks in the intersection. This percentage is used to calculate truck travel volumes, which are used in combination with truck value of time to calculate user time costs for truck traffic. • Annual transit passengers (optional): To be entered if user time costs for transit passengers are to be included in the user cost calculations. • Annual bicyclists (optional): To be entered if user time costs for cyclists are to be included in the user cost calculations. • Annual pedestrians (optional): To be entered if user time costs for pedestrians are to be included in the user cost calculations. 3.3.3.3. Modifying demand profiles The demand profiles provided in the DemandParameters sheet represent national averages based on facility types. The user also has the option to modify these profiles to reflect local conditions or to incorporate local traffic count data. 3.3.3.4. Creating demand profiles After demand data have been entered for each analysis year, click on the Create Demand Profile button. This will run an Excel macro that will calculate hourly demands throughout the year. These demands will be used in the user travel time cost calculations for each alternative.

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Page 54 Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET 3.4. ALTERNATIVES 3.4.1. OVERVIEW The Alternatives worksheets are where characteristics of the individual alternatives are defined. Data for an individual alternative are entered in a worksheet that is specific to that alternative. The alternatives to be defined are managed through the Alternatives_MasterList worksheet. This worksheet is used to add, and, if necessary, delete, alternatives. 3.4.2. BASE ALTERNATIVE The base alternative represents a special case against which all other alternatives are referenced. For example, the user travel time benefits for an alternative are equal to the user time costs for that alternative minus the user time costs for the base case; if an alternative has a lower user time cost than the base case, that will represent a positive benefit. The base case typically, but not always, represents a “do nothing” case. An example could be the current intersection configuration carried into the future. Alternately, the base case may include changes to the intersection that have already been programmed. 3.4.3. ALTERNATIVES MASTER LIST The Alternatives_MasterList worksheet is shown in Figure 3-8. This worksheet maintains a list of alternatives to be analyzed. Figure 3-8. Alternatives_MasterList worksheet To add a new alternative: 1. Click on the Add Alternative button. This will create a new Alternative worksheet.

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Page 55 2. Define a short name for the alternative in Column B of the worksheet. 3. Enter a description of the alternative in Column C. 4. Optionally, the user can add informational notes for each alternative. Repeat these steps for each new alternative. The Alternatives_MasterList also allows the user to delete an alternative if desired. To delete an alternative: 1. Click on the Delete Alternative button. 2. In the checklist that appears, select the alternative to be deleted. 3. Click on the Submit button to complete the deletion. 3.4.4. ALTERNATIVES WORKSHEETS 3.4.4.1. Overview of alternatives worksheets Inputs for each alternative are contained in separate worksheets labeled Alternative_n, where n is the alternative number. Figure 3-9 presents an overview of the worksheet for an alternative. Figure 3-9. Overview of worksheet for alternative There are three main sections in this worksheet: • User inputs. Inputs provided by the user. • Summary NPV by cost type. Summary of the net present value of costs by type. • Background calculations. User travel time costs are calculated on an hour-by-hour basis throughout the year. This section contains the background calculations for these costs. This section should not be modified by the user without a thorough understanding of the VBA code. Summary NPV by cost type User inputs Background calculations

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Page 56 Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET A detail of the user inputs worksheet is shown in Figure 3-10. The following are the user input sections, discussed separately below: Figure 3-10. User inputs detail • Analysis years – Specifies for the alternative (a) the earliest year that planning or construction begins, (b) the opening year, (c) the end year, and (d) optional interim years for which demand and travel time/delay data are available • Planning and construction costs • Operating and maintenance costs • Emissions – Greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants • Crashes – Forecasts of crashes in the analysis years 3.4.4.2. Setting up the alternatives worksheet The first step in setting up the analysis sheet is to define the analysis years as shown in Figure 3-11. Figure 3-11. Alternative worksheet, user inputs: analysis years and setup The following years must be specified: • Begin planning and construction: The earliest year that planning and/or construction begins for the alternative. Analysis years Planning & construction costs Operating and maintenance costs Demand & travel time / delay Emissions Crashes

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Page 57 • Opening year: The year the alternative begins operation. • End year: The horizon year for the analysis of the alternative. Usually this year is equivalent to the assumed end of the lifetime for the alternative. In addition, the user may specify one or more interim years for which demand and travel time/delay forecasts are available for the alternative. Once the years are specified, click on the Setup Worksheet button. This runs an Excel macro that checks for the following: • Years specified by the user must meet the following criteria: o The “begin planning and construction” year must be the same as or later than the base year specified in the CostParameters worksheet o Opening year must be the same as or later than the “begin planning or construction year” o End year must be later than the opening year o Any interim year must be greater than the opening year and less than the end year. • Demand data in the DemandParameters sheet must be present for the following: o Opening year o End year o All interim years that were specified If one or more of these criteria is violated, the macro will stop running and an error message will be displayed. When the macro completes running, formulas will be set up in the Background Calculations section for use in calculating user time costs. A window will display a message that the setup ran successfully. 3.4.4.3. User inputs Once the Setup Worksheet macro has been successfully run, the user must provide inputs as described below. Planning and construction costs Planning and construction costs are entered in the section shown in Figure 3-12. The table provides suggested categories for planning and construction costs; this is not intended to be a comprehensive list. Additional lines are provided for cost categories that the user may define. To enter costs for a new category, simply enter the name of the cost category in the left-hand column and then enter the costs in the appropriate cells to the right. The worksheet provides for a planning and construction period of up to five (5) years.

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Page 58 Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Figure 3-12. Alternative worksheet, user inputs: planning and construction costs Operating and maintenance costs Operating and maintenance costs are specified in the user inputs section shown in Figure 3-13. The table provides several suggested cost categories and space for the user to enter additional categories if needed. To enter costs for a new category, simply enter the name of the cost category in the left-hand column and then enter the costs in the appropriate cells to the right. Figure 3-13. Alternative worksheet, user inputs: operating and maintenance costs Operating and maintenance costs are entered as follows: • Begin year: The year the cost is first incurred. • Period: How often the cost is incurred. For example, if the cost is incurred every year, enter a 1. If inspection is carried out every 5 years, enter a 5. If a cost will be incurred only one time during the lifetime of the project, leave this entry blank. • Cost: The amount of the cost each time it is incurred. Entering Salvage Values As noted in Chapter 2, some components of an alternative may have lifetimes that go beyond the assumed end year for the alternative. Section 2.1.1.2 discusses how the values of these components, termed salvage values, should be subtracted from the cost of the alternative.

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Page 59 Salvage values of components of a project may be entered into the “Operating & maintenance costs” section of the worksheet as follows. For each component that will have a salvage value at the end of the project lifetime: 1. Label line for that component in the “Operating & maintenance costs” section of the worksheet with the name of the component and a note to indicate that this is a salvage value. 2. In the “Begin year” column enter the end year for the alternative. 3. Leave the “Period (years)” column blank. 4. In the “Cost” column, enter the salvage value for the component as a negative cost. Demand and travel time / delay Demand and travel time (or delay) data are entered in the section shown in Figure 3-14. All demand and travel time (or delay) data are for all approaches to the study area. Figure 3-14. Alternative worksheet sheet, user inputs: demand and travel time / delay Travel time or delay data will be derived from operations analyses of the study area for the peak hours; these operations analyses should be done at a minimum for the base year and the end year. At a minimum, travel time or delay data must be provided for one peak hour in the opening year and one peak hour in the end year. Note: Some intersection analyses may forecast travel time through the study area, while others may forecast delay relative to free-flow time. Whichever measure is used, it is important that it be used consistently throughout the analysis. This section provides for the following entries: • Average vehicle travel time or delay: The average travel time or delay per vehicle through the intersection for all vehicles entering the study area during the peak hours. Travel times or delays must be specified for a minimum of one peak hour for the following years: o Opening year o End year o Any interim year(s) specified by the user • Standard deviation of travel time (optional): This is a reliability measure that denotes the standard deviation of the average travel time through the study area. Travel time reliability is being given increasing

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Page 60 Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET emphasis as a performance measure by federal and state agencies. The worksheet provides for valuing travel time reliability if the agency currently uses reliability as a performance measure. • Travel times for cyclists and pedestrians (optional): Average pedestrian and cyclist travel time through the study area. Safety Safety data consist of numbers of crashes by type, depending on the category selection made by the user in the CostParameters sheet. An example is shown in Figure 3-15. Figure 3-15. Alternative worksheet, user inputs: safety If crash data are being used in the analysis, they must be entered for the same years as those for which travel time or delay data are entered. Emissions Emissions data are entered in the section shown in Figure 3-16. Figure 3-16. Alternative worksheet, user inputs – emissions Two types of emissions may be entered: • Greenhouse gases: These are entered as annual CO2 equivalent emissions in metric tons. • Criteria pollutants: Entered as annual tons of emissions per year by pollutant category. If emissions data are being used in the analysis, they must be entered for the same years as those for which travel time or delay data are entered. 3.4.4.4. Results The net present value of costs for each alternative are presented in summary form as shown in Figure 3-17.

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Page 61 Figure 3-17. Alternative worksheet: summary NPV table Costs are provided only for those categories in which the user provides entries. This table provides a convenient way of checking whether some data may have been inadvertently omitted by the user. 3.5. LCCET OUTPUTS 3.5.1. OVERVIEW Once the necessary data have been entered for all alternatives, go to the Outputs worksheet to display the results. Click on the Compile Analysis Summary button. This will run an Excel macro that copies the calculated costs from the Alternatives worksheets (in the summary NPV table for each alternative) to the Outputs worksheet. Figure 3-18 gives an overview of the Outputs worksheet.

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Page 62 Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Figure 3-18. Outputs worksheet overview Results are displayed for all alternatives side by side in tabular and graphical format. The first output table shows the net present value of all costs by category for each alternative (Figure 3-19). Figure 3-19. Outputs worksheet: net present value of costs table The second table (Figure 3-20) shows the net present value of benefits in relation to the base alternative. Compile analysis summary Costs by category Benefits by category Graphical display of net present values by category for all alternatives

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Page 63 Figure 3-20. Outputs worksheet: net present value of benefits relative to base case For this analysis, net benefits are considered to be reductions in the following types of costs relative to the base case: • Travel time costs • Travel time reliability costs • Crash costs • Emissions costs This table also shows several summary measures: • Net present value of benefits: Total net present value of benefits compared to the base case. • Net present value of costs: Total net present value of costs compared to the base case. • Present value of net benefits: Net present value of benefits minus the net present value of costs; i.e., the incremental net benefit value of the alternative compared to the base case. • Benefit-cost ratio: Ratio of net present value of costs to net present value of benefits. The Outputs worksheet also presents a graphical comparison of the net present value of total costs by category in a stacked-bar format (Figure 3-21).

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Page 64 Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Figure 3-21. Outputs worksheet: net present value of total costs graph 3.6. APPENDIX – AUXILIARY WORKSHEETS As mentioned in Section 3.1.1, the LCCET contains several worksheets that are referenced by the Excel macros that set up the calculations. These worksheets are available should users desire to modify the Excel macros in the workbook. In normal use, these should not be modified by the user. Modifying these worksheets in any way may cause the LCCET to not function properly or to not function at all. 3.7. SUMMARY This chapter has presented a guide to using the LCCET. The guide covers the overall structure of the LCCET and the individual worksheets. 3.7.1. NECESSARY DATA The only data that are necessary for proper working of the LCCET are the following: • Cost parameters to be used in the calculations: Default values are provided for these parameters, but these may be overridden by the user. • Total traffic demand entering the study area in the opening year and in the end year: Peak hour demand and AADT. • Travel times or delays for at least one peak hour for the opening year and the end year. • Planning, construction, and operating and maintenance costs. The LCCET is designed to allow for flexibility on the part of the user. The user may define their own cost categories, and may override any of the default cost or demand parameters. 3.7.2. ERROR HANDLING The LCCET is designed to catch most errors that might be made. If an error is detected by the LCCET, one of the following will occur:

NCHRP Project 03-110: Estimating the Life-Cycle Cost of Intersection Designs Final Report Chapter 3 – A Guided Tour of the LCCET Page 65 • A warning message will be displayed in one of the worksheet cells. Fixing the error will cause the message to disappear. • After clicking a button to run a macro, if an error is detected a window will appear with an error message. Clicking the OK button on the window will cause the window to close and allow the user to correct the error. 3.7.3. SUMMARY The LCCET was designed using Microsoft Excel 2010 running on Microsoft Windows on a PC platform. Microsoft Excel 2010 is upward-compatible with the latest version of Microsoft Excel (as of this writing, the 2013 version). Hence, all macros should run on the latest version at the time of this writing. The LCCET has not been tested on earlier versions of Excel. The program will require that macros are enabled within Excel and the file type when saving should remain as “*.xlsm” so that macros are not removed. The LCCET uses ActiveX macros and thus may not be fully functional running on an Apple Mac.