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Research and Development: Learning by Experience on Recent Projects

Development Plan for Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China
Preserving Environmental Quality in a High-Growth Region

Working with the American Planning Association, we provided project management services, conducted background studies, prepared economic and social projections, and proposed strategic plan alternatives for Nantong Municipality, a local government jurisdiction that is home to some seven million people and close to Shanghai. New bridges and tunnels being developed to cross the Yangtze River from Shanghai are likely to place significant development pressures on the region. With the region relatively isolated until now from the rapid growth of its neighbors to the south, Nantong's leaders sought to take advantage of new growth opportunities while preserving the municipality's historic and cultural resources. In addition, these leaders recognized that planning and implementation of development strategy faces new challenges in China's evolving market-based economy. The project produced specific practical strategy alternatives to be considered by the municipal government's leadership and demonstrated planning practices that government staff could use to explore the likely impact of major public works investments in thew region.

Assessment of Current Practice in Infrastructure Management :
Use of Life-cycle Cost Analysis for Bridges and Other Major Facilities

Under the auspices of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, we participated in development of a comprehensive methodology for life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) of bridges. As part of this project, we conducted a survey of current practices, as reflected in the literature and commentary of professional practitioners in several countries, on (1) the use of LCCA by government agencies responsible for managing facilities other than highway bridges and (2) the use of LCCA by agencies outside of the North America for management of bridges to determine the extent of LCCA use and how effective LCCA is judged to be as a decision-making tool. We found that there is no single authoritative and generally accepted definitions of "life-cycle cost analysis" and specification of procedures for conducting LCCA. The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has published Standard E-833, Standard Terms Related to Building Economics, but no reference was made to this or other sources of standards by respondants to the MATRIX survey. We found that the distinction in current practice between LCCA and other applications of engineering economic analysis, notably benefit-cost analysis (BCA), is unclear, and that the service- or design-life assumptions presently used in analysis have no apparent basis in theory or experience.