The Calculation Model For Life Cycle Cost Of Expressway

At the same time of the rapid development of expressways in China, the construction and operation cost of such expressways rise sharply. However, at present, we care mainly the cost during the construction period, that is, the current investment effects, but pay little attention to maintenance cost, user cost, safety cost and environment cost when we select a design plan. Furthermore, since the expressway project is featured with long investment cycle, great expenses, one-time investment, irreversible construction and great risks. Once we choose a design that does not fit,we need to pay more life cycle cost for it than a better design,this is not a good idea. Therefore, we should establish the calculation system for life cycle cost of expressway, and design plan multi-index scheme evaluation and optimization is particularly important.Firstly, by analyzing the current road cost composition theories, this paper put forward the principle of building the social cost system for expressways and built the social cost system for expressways which is convenient for designs comparison and selection and evaluation of existing projects by eliminating those minor and slightly influencing itemized costs and selecting those costs with huge amount and big influences, such as the construction cost, maintenance cost, user cost, safety cost and environment cost.Secondly, the paper analyzed in details the calculation models of each itemized cost, expounded the existing research results of such models and analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the same. Furthermore, it built the calculation system applicable to the life cycle cost of expressways in Guangdong Province and made explanation on the application prospects of such models in the expressways of Guangdong Province. The development trend (that is, what inelasticity of such models will appear along with the economic and social development as well as changes in these regions and what about the future countermeasures for wider applications) of some models were predicted too.Typical expressways in the plain, hill and mountainous areas of Guangdong Province were selected for detailed survey on the basic data of maintenance costs in years; effective analysis and classification were made to the maintenance expenditures in the past years pertinent to the features of such expenditures; scientific, reasonable and complete influence factors were selected based on the actual expenditure situation to build the maintenance cost model; detailed analysis was conducted to each itemized expenses and the relationship between such cost and the influence factors were correctly summarized and finally the calculation model for these itemized cost were set up. Finally, an overall model for the maintenance expenditures of expressways was built based on the built itemized cost models.With the support of the theoretical analysis, this paper analyzed and calculated the itemized cost of Chaozhou-Huizhou Expressway and finally got the social cost: construction cost, maintenance cost, user cost, safety cost and environment cost, during the whole life cycle of this expressway. Calculation of the life cycle cost of expressways is a critical step for the analytical theories of the life cycle cost.Finally, the paper innovatively proposed the expressways project multi-index optimization method that can include various costs difficult to quantify and in tiny amounts into the whole society life cycle cost analysis system; meanwhile, it provides a kind of solution to the case of inconsistent degree of importance on major costs.