ENGINEERING EVALUATION OF THE TRACKED AIR CUSHION RESEARCH VEHICLE GUIDEWAY

摘要

Exceptionally high bid prices were received on the first contract to construct the initial portion of a proposed 22-mile guideway test facility for the TACRV. As a result, production-cost studies were conducted on the guideway construction to determine the factors contributing to the high cost, and a design review was made to determine if an alternate design of lower cost was feasible. From the analysis of the actual construction costs, it was concluded that (1) the contract as bid included a 25 percent inflationary factor attributed to the experimental nature of the project, and the adjustability features and rigid tolerance requirements of the design; (2) savings of 5 to 15 percent of the actual construction cost could be realized from simple plan and specification modification; and (3) substantial cost savings in the range from 20 to 50 percent in the construction of future guideways for the TACRV can only be realized if the characteristics of the research vehicle are altered to the extent that the guideway can be constructed to within lesser tolerances and without the total adjustability features of the present design.