Continuing Costs

A project incurs continuing costs after the facility is completed and while it is in use. These can include costs for any of the following:

• • Operations

    • • Traffic management, toll taking, bus operations, and terminal operations.

  • Maintenance

    • • Routine servicing of equipment and facilities (sometimes referred to as preventive maintenance), repair and cleanup required by accidents or adverse weather

  • Rehabilitation

    • • Infrequent major repairs of facilities, such as street resurfacing. Rehabilitation does not typically include reconstruction, which is treated as a project in its own right.

Typical elements and examples of these costs are:

• • Labor (including all benefit costs)

    • • Bus drivers, toll takers, electrical technicians, clerical workers, managers

  • Materials and supplies

    • • Fuel, tires, paper

  • Equipment

    • • Maintenance vehicles, buses, computers, traffic signals, signs

  • Utilities

    • • Electricity, gas, telephone, other communications services

  • Rent and lease payments

    • • Building and land rent

  • Contract services

    • • Outside contracts for advertising, research, cleaning

Depreciation should not be included in the costs; future expenditures for replacement should be used instead.

Only the marginal cost incurred because of the project should be included. For example, costs of an administration building to be used by people managing a new rail line, but already used by an agency for other purposes, would not be included. Any additional utilities or cleaning services required by the added people would be included. The treatment of inflation should be consistent over all benefits and costs. All costs and benefits should be either in constant/real dollars or in inflated/current dollars. It is easier and generally more accurate to use constant rather than inflated dollars.