Economic Impact on Surrounding Businesses due to Bridge Construction

Abstract: The Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) has reduced the traffic disruptions during bridge construction. Associated risks and additional activities involved with ABC increase initial project cost. However, ABC brings in the benefits of reduced mobility impact time such as lower maintenance of traffic cost, lifecycle cost, and economic impact on surrounding communities and businesses. Even though, the savings from user cost due to reduced mobility impact time is traditionally used to justify the additional cost for ABC implementation, there are other quantitative factors that need to be considered when selecting a bridge construction method. Economic impact on surrounding businesses is one such factors that need to be considered. This article presents a comprehensive model to quantify economic impact on surrounding businesses. Economic impact analysis considers user cost and business revenue change. M-100 over CN Railroad bridge replacement project in Michigan is used as the case study to illustrate the implementation of economic impact analysis procedure. The case study outcome shows that the economic impact on surrounding businesses by conventional construction (CC) is 16 times greater than the economic impact of ABC.