Innovative Pipeline Cost Estimating for Colorado Water Supply Planning

摘要

Planning for Colorado's water future includes addressing infrastructure needs associated with meeting future municipal and industrial demands. As part of the Colorado Water Conservation Board's (CWCB) Statewide Water Supply Initiative, CWCB developed reconnaissance-level cost estimates for several pipelines that have been discussed by various entities across the state. The scale of the proposed pipelines is significant, conveying large flows from across the Continental Divide, and even across state lines, to the eastern edge of the Rockies where most of the state's population is concentrated. To compare these major projects, CWCB and CDM developed planning-level cost estimates with considerable detail given the long term of the planning horizon. This comprehensive effort required collaboration between planning engineers and experts in design and construction cost estimation. Many of the unit costs were developed using existing tools intended for design phases. Care was taken to make the methodologies and the tools transferrable to other projects. This unique reconnaissance-level cost estimating project is thus relevant to water supply planners, and anyone interested in the early stages of large pipeline projects or pipeline cost estimation in general.