The Feasability of Feasability Studies

[Gathursty]

After watching Granada Reports discuss the Barrow in Furness to Millom/Heysham tidal barrage and expressway, I heard that inbetween a preliminary study and actual construction, an expensive Feasability Study is required running into the millions of pounds.

My question is are Feasability Studies worth the money or are they just an excuse for governments/councils to quietly drop things they once promised to get elected?

You may consider any infrastructure project not limited to rail.

 

[DerekC]

Well, this kind of project costs billions and to me it makes sense to confirm that it can actually be built, will be able to deliver the expected outputs and won't cause too much environmental damage before committing to construction. If the project goes ahead the money isn't wasted because one of the deliverables will be the first stage of the design.

 

[PeterC]

Sorry but this sounds like the manager I once had who wouldn't authorise a feasability study without first having the costings for the finished project which would be determined by the feasability study.

 

[Meerkat]

Are they serious about the Barrow to Millom barrage? Surely have to put the railway across too - save loads of time round those corners and all the level crossings?

 

[bspahh]

The Ely Southern Bypass had been in planning stages for ages. Then it got pushed through quickly. Some of the ground surveys which would normally done in 3 months were done in something like 4-6 weeks. When they came to build it, they found that the foundations had to go a lot deeper, and the cost of the project rose from £36m to £49m. There was another delay when they realised that they would need to replace an overhead power line with an underground one. Given more time for the preparatory work, perhaps these would have been spotted. You would still need to deep foundations, but perhaps other bits of the specification could have been trimmed to save some cash.

In a previous discussion, Bald Rick commented:

"There’s a saying in civil engineering:

You pay for your ground investigations whether you do them or not."

 

[cb a1]

I've heard it said that your planning should typically* be about 0.5% of the project cost.
So £1b project would be £5m on the planning.
*As you move into more unusual / novel projects this percentage will be higher in proportion to how unusual the project is.

 

[Busaholic]

You obviously need a preliminary study to establish whether a feasibility study is needed. The U.K. is a past master in this sort of obfuscation, and doubtless will continue to be so once the European tethers are unbound

 

[Bald Rick]

Put it like this.

You want an extension on your house. You do some preliminary work to ascertain where you want the extension, roughly how big etc.

Do you:

a) contract the builder to build it, or
b) get an architect to do some drawings for the builder first?