New Jersey's cost of road and bridge construction is the highest in the nation by far. It doesn't have to be.
Forty states use design build bidding which uses the competitive process to design the most efficient construction -reducing construction costs and overhead. New Jersey does not.
On multi-contractor, multi-agency construction, like the Rt. 35 project which cost taxpayers $25 mil for a contractor doing no work for months, a construction project manager could have avoided the work stoppage that kept a contractor idle because of a lack of communication among state and local officials.
Inexplicably Governor Christie suspended Phase II of a contract with Rutgers to recommend measures to cut the cost of infrastructure construction. The cost of Phase II was $60,000.
"Phase II of this study will conduct an analysis of toll road authority expenditures and produce a detailed case study analysis of various NJDOT and toll authority roadway and bridge projects to understand cost efficiency variation more completely."
NEWS RELEASE
Rutgers study estimates cost to build and maintain NJDOT roads
(Trenton) - New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) officials today announced the release of a new study conducted by Rutgers University's Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center that determined the average cost to plan, construct, operate, and maintain one mile of roadway under NJDOT jurisdiction is $183,757.
The study is part of a two phase effort to provide an understanding of aggregate costs associated with NJDOT roadways and bridges. Rutgers will conduct additional research to understand more completely the factors that influence cost efficiency.
“The New Jersey Department of Transportation is committed to providing a modern, safe, and reliable transportation system throughout the State in the most effective manner possible,” NJDOT Acting Commissioner Richard T. Hammer said. “The study is part of an on-going effort to identify those factors that drive costs in New Jersey’s public transportation sector.”
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1 comment:
Look at the cost of the engineers, architects, lawyers and other professionals. Compare their fees with the the costs charged in other states. Also look at the cost of land acquisition for new construction.
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