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Elements for comprehensive highway cost estimation : construction costs of key roadway infrastructure, right-of-way for the Trans-Texas Corridor, and condemnation comparisons across states
The major contributors to the total cost and duration of highway projects are utility relocation, right-of-way (ROW) acquisition, and construction. This paper discusses the volatility of the cost of the two latter phases and suggests alternative cost estimation tools and methods based on Texas databases. It describes three related but distinct studies. The first study discussed relies on regression models to estimate the construction costs of key roadway infrastructure. The second applies county-level appraisals and other databases to estimate the cost of ROW acquisition for the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) project. The third investigates the legal aspects of ROW acquisition and compares relevant statutes across the U.S. states, relative to their condemnation rates. Based on these comparisons, this paper offers recommendations that are expected to lower condemnation rates as well as the cost and duration of the ROW acquisition process. The work addresses significant gaps in the existing literature and should prove valuable to construction professionals/managers, transportation planners, developers, appraisers, and those involved in highway project cost estimation, as well as ROW acquisitionCivil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin