Managing Capital Costs of Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Projects: Contractor's Final Report (2006) / Chapter Skim
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This project was funded under the Transit Cooperative Research Program for research into the strategies, tools and techniques available to better manage major transit capital projects. This Executive Summary highlights the major findings and conclusions emanating from this research.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 2 Project Selection Process An initial set of over 30 candidate projects was reduced to 28 projects conforming to the basic study requirements -- fixed guideway transit projects in excess of $100 million, and with sufficient information to support the cost and schedule analysis. Cost and schedule information was collected from each of these 28 projects to establish the extent of the cost and schedule trends.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 3 Appendix C provides descriptions of each of these projects within a consistent framework described in Section 3. Findings and Conclusions This report has examined the strategies, tools, and techniques to better estimate, contain, and manage capital costs based, in part, on the experience of the case study projects.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 4 controllable. The larger impacts that were both unexpected and less controllable were the stakeholder, third-party, and real estate acquisition issues and their impacts upon the project definition.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 5 concerns were raised about the impacts of these measures. The benefits of these procurement incentives were highlighted, but could not be demonstrated through these higher level cost results.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 6 One of the techniques most mentioned for better cost estimation was the development and maintenance of historical bid estimates on a unit basis. This source of cost information was noted as a good comparative source for these actual as-built costs.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 7 These budget and schedule control functions have become increasingly important to the process as the computer systems capabilities have increased. More control is exercised through these systems and they are providing increased visibility into these issues.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 8 Quality Assurance Addressing quality issues at an early stage helped avoid unnecessary complications. Several innovative quality approaches were identified, including application of a QA/QC manual, a just-in-time training program, preparatory phase inspections, an independent testing program, and use of specific metrics to monitor and recognize contractor's effort on quality.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 9 schedule can help minimize uncertainties during estimation. When uncertainties are unavoidable, it is imperative to communicate the assumptions and limitations of the estimates in a way that is easily understood.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 10 • Apply a Broad Range of Project Management Controls – During implementation, the scope, schedule, and QA/QC controls used by project managers varied but usually included each of the following elements: – Problem Resolution – The quality testing process needs to focus on resolution of the root cause rather than solely on the symptoms. – Efficient Processing – Changes could be identified early, estimated, negotiated, and settled in an expeditious, pre-defined process.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 11 4. What changes outside of the direct control of project sponsors could foster the reliable estimation of project costs and schedules?
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 12 sponsors can more clearly explain to stakeholders the reasons for any cost variability through the phases of project development. The charts developed for the case studies and presented in Appendix C is one example of such a framework.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 13 • Continue to refine the consistent database structure for all capital cost and schedule reporting requirements throughout the project development process • Develop the guidance necessary to require all project cost and schedule reporting to conform with that structure • Develop a uniform project element structure for this project data and provide element definitions for it's context within the cost estimating and historical bid cost databases. • A "basis of estimate" document can then be developed from this • Continue and enhance the documentation of the as-built cost and schedule databases • Expand the analysis capability of these databases to examine project cost risk items and values • Increase the development of the risk assessment process: – Analyze technical analysis process improvements – Capture schedule risks – Better link the risk items to the project budgetary line items – Examine the optimal roles and responsibilities within the process – Consider the scheduling of the assessment efforts to coincide and better support the project development process – Examine the potential application of the risk estimates as construction cost contingencies • Review current project management oversight guidance procedures to look for opportunities to emphasize cost and schedule management within the process • Examine the potential application of the cost validation processes, such as the CEVP™, to the transit project development process.
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TCRP Project G-07 -- Managing Capital Costs of Final Report Major Federally Funded Public Transportation Executive Summary 14 INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
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