The following are a series of cost estimate models similar in format to a typical engineer’s estimate that were developed in support of our financial impact assessment report for LD 1725. The models us current material costs, labor costs, and equipment costs for the region to provide a comparative cost analysis of seven culvert replacement scenarios. The models provide information about what the cost impact of LD 1725 would be for typical culvert replacements in Maine. However, due to the inherent restrictions of the cost modeling framework we were not able to include the abundance of variables that would be present in a real world culvert replacement project. As such, the models are representative of very basic culvert replacement projects and may not reflect the tremendous variety and scale of variable could be present in an actual culvert replacement project. For example, construction costs for culvert replacement in a rural setting versus an urban setting can vary by as much as 50% due to site specific variables such as lane width, paving depth, traffic count and the presence of potentially conflicting underground utilities
