course-details-portlet

TBA4315

Economics of Transport Infrastructure

Choose study year
Credits 7.5
Level Second degree level
Course start Autumn 2024
Duration 1 semester
Language of instruction English
Location Trondheim
Examination arrangement School exam

About

About the course

Course content

Basics of transport economics and Cost/benefit analysis of transport infrastructure investments. Monetized impacts and assessment of effects. Estimation of costs under uncertainty. The relationship between construction, maintenance and operation costs. Optimization and Life cycle costs, LCC. Value Engineering.

Learning outcome

Knowledge; students will gain knowledge of

  • Central concepts in Benefit/Cost Analysis (BCA) and economic analysis and application in the transport sector.
  • Methodology for cost estimation under uncertainty, method, process and application
  • Monetized consequences and impact calculations / output
  • The calculation methodology for Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA)
  • Value engineering (VE), method, process and utility.

Skills; students will gain skills to

  • Constructing demand-supply graphs and do interpretations of these
  • Setting up the demand function for a market and understand this
  • Make simple Benefit Cost Analysis (BCA) and know how this can be applied
  • Calculating cost estimates under uncertainty; expected cost, variance and standard deviation
  • Interpreting probability curves for cost estimates and uncertainty profiles in relation to the acceptance criteria
  • Determine the primary and secondary functions for projects and elements (part of Value Engineering, VE)
  • Construct FAST-diagram (Function Analyse System Technique) (Why-why / how-how-to chart) (part of VE)
  • Making matrix analysis for ranking of ideas/alternatives (part of VE).

General competence; students will

  • Understand the basic concepts and theory in economics
  • Understand the various steps in a stepwise process for estimating project costs under uncertainty
  • Understand the various steps in a Value Engineering analysis, and understand how to use a VE process as a QA-tool for a project.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures, excursions and exercises. All four exercises must be approved in order to attend the exam. The course will be given in English if students not speaking Norwegian are attending.

Compulsory assignments

  • Exercises

Further on evaluation

The final exam accounts for 100% of the grade. Four obligatory exercises must be approved in order to attend the exam. If there is a re-sit examination, the examination form may be changed from written to oral.

Course materials

Compendium, guidelines and computer programs.

Subject areas

  • Highway Engineering
  • Transportation Engineering
  • Technological subjects
  • Economics

Contact information

Course coordinator

Lecturers

Department with academic responsibility

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering