| Abstract | The construction, maintenance, repair, rehabilitation and renewal of municipal infrastructurecause considerable disruption and inconvenience, that can not be easily quantified, to amunicipality and to the general public. These costs are typically called social costs. There arehowever, a number of other indirect costs that are incurred by a municipality, by specificindividuals, or by society that can also be directly associated to a specific infrastructure project. The objectives of this report are to present an overview of the existing research in this field and to outline the importance of considering, identifying, quantifying and verifying social and indirect costs when selecting which technologies are the most cost-effective for the life cycle of municipal infrastructure. The impact of social costs on life cycle cost analysis, an assessment of social costs and examples from case studies are discussed. The study found that social costs can account for up to 400% of construction costs on certain projects. Thus, it is important to establish a generic social cost protocol that can be used by municipal organization to identify and quantify social costs. This report proposes an itemization and quantification protocol that municipalities can use when making decisions regarding the life cycle management of infrastructure. |
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