BENEFIT/COST ANALYSIS
> OVERVIEW
Benefit is the monetary comparison between the alternative and the no build scenario. There were four factors that were considered to calculate each alternative’s benefit and each factor was given a monetary value. The considered factors included total stops, total delay, fuel used and CO emissions. Total stops is the number of vehicles that stop within an hour. Total delay is the amount of delay the average vehicle experiences within the intersections. Fuel used is the amount of fuel consumed by the average vehicle while traveling through or waiting at the intersections. CO emissions are the amount of carbon monoxide the average vehicle creates going through or waiting at a given intersection. Synchro was used to obtain the factor values before converting each factor to a monetary value. The benefits were calculated for each of the four intersections shown in the figure below. Each alternative’s benefit was calculated by comparing it with the no build alternative over a 20 year period.
> BENEFIT COST RATIO
These values were calculated over a 20 year span over the alternative’s life to compare the benefit over a no build scenario. These benefit values were then summed up to come up with a total benefit value for each alternative. These can be seen in the figure below.
The cost for each alternative was calculated by summing up the following costs: earthwork, pavement structural items, speciality items, traffic items roadway, right of way acquisition, and bridgework. These costs were summed up for each alternative to get the overall cost to build each alternative and can be seen in the figure below.
The benefit over cost ratio is a way to determine which alternatives are viable to be constructed. A benefit over cost ratio of 1 indicates the monetary value calculated from the benefit is the same as the cost spent to construct the alternative. Therefore, a benefit over cost ratio requires a minimum of 1.0 to be considered viable. The ratios for each alternative was calculated and can be seen in the figure below.