ABSTRACT
In addition to a technical assessment of quay wall designs, a financial assessment must also be carried out, giving the owner the opportunity to choose one of the alternative designs. The financial assessment should provide insight into the total investment costs, operational costs, and maintenance and demolition costs. In this way the owner obtains a picture of the optimum price/quality relation. Various methods can be used to determine the costs of projects. CROW has developed a cost estimate system for the civil engineering sector. Within this sector this is the most accepted way of assessing costs [10.1]. For the estimate of the engineering costs the guidelines of the Royal Institution of Engineers in the Netherlands (KIVI NIRIA) and for the consulting engineer the guidelines of (DNR) are followed [10.2]. Moreover, many organisations have collected dimensionless parameters or indices that are based on data of the costs of previous projects. Both methods of estimating are used. Which method is chosen depends on the phase of the project and the associated uncertainty and required specifications. Obviously the choice is also dependent on the available data.
