Life-cycle cost analysis: State of the practice versus state of the art

Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is increasingly gaining recognition by the transportation community as an indispensable practice if the sustainability of its infrastructure systems is to be realized. The product of a 3-year study that assessed the LCCA practice in state highway agencies (SHAs) is presented. The study examined how LCCA practice changed in two decades, surveyed the way LCCA is practiced currently at SHAs in the United States, and reviewed how this evaluation technique is deliberated by the academics and researchers in the engineering and economics domains. Results of this study prove noteworthy in the inspection of an observed gap between the state of the practice and state of the art of LCCA. After all, that gap set up grounds for the noted mistrust in the credibility of LCCA. In addition to study results, an analysis of the observed gap and its causes is presented as well as recommendations for what can be done to bridge that gap. It is hoped that this will prove valuable for practitioners conducting LCCA, for policy makers, and for researchers carrying out studies on various topics related to LCCA.