Department of Transportation

Introduction

Road User Costs in the work zone are added vehicle operating costs and delay costs to highway users resulting from construction, maintenance, or rehabilitation activity.

This manual will familiarize the analyst with work zone and traffic characteristics, explain the possible work zone related road user cost components that can occur, and provide a step by step procedure to determine road user costs.

Designers should consider road user costs when determining the most appropriate construction staging. This should be done early in the design process while there is still flexibility in the design. The optimal design will mitigate or avoid disruptions before they can be created.

Road User Costs play an important role in computing Liquidated Damages, and selecting the most appropriate project delivery method (i.e., Incentive/Disincentive, A+B Bidding, etc.), and developing Transportation Management Plans.

This manual is an excellent tool in helping to determine the appropriate capital investment on a project.

Section Index
  • Section 1 - Introduction
  • Section 2 - Components
  • Section 3 - Computations
  • Section 4 - Applications
  • Section 5 - Work Zone Examples
  • Section 6 - Resource Documents
Work Sheets
BDC announcement BDC15T-02 (August 31, 2015)

Road User Cost Manual (pdf 657k)

Last updated date: July 29, 2020 9:20 AM