ABSTRACT
The growth of urban regions, high property costs and increasing environmental concerns have led to an increasing importance of tunnels despite their comparatively high costs. In addition, a small number of severe tunnel fire accidents have led to a general policy of separated tubes for highway tunnels in Europe with substantial investment needs. The paper presents a standardized life cycle cost model for road tunnels on asset level as reference for cost comparisons allowing generalized budget and cost estimations on network level. This standard life cycle cost model has been extended to tunnel element level and is capable of handling costs and benefits for operator, user, society and environment as well. Providing decision makers with the necessary information on investment costs and full life cycle costs is the basis for sustainable investment decisions.
