The Real Price – Holistic Cost-Efficiency Considerations in Design and Construction of Infrastructure Projects

The present paper focuses on holistic sustainability evaluations for infrastructure measures and the related engineering structures. Following a brief overview on the current state of development of rating concepts both in the building and infrastructure sector, general options for assessing the over- all sustainability are discussed and some major infrastructure-specific characteristics regarding the holistic performance are explained. Since indirect (external) effects often play an important role in the assessment of infrastructure measures, the respective influence on the overall performance and the interrelation between direct and indirect costs are exemplarily discussed by means of three examples (road infrastructure). Hereby, it is shown that the indirect costs easily may reach a level being in the range of the construction costs of the entire project and that an initial additional investment during construction in high-quality structural members and components is being typically paid off by a reduced maintenance effort, even if the external effects are not included.