Roadworks design: Study on selection of construction materials in the preliminary design phase based on economic performance

The preliminary design phase transforms the investor’s ideas and information into general plans, drawings and specifications and helps the project managers continue the next steps in the projects. Material selection is an essential task to incorporate sustainable content into the construction industry. This paper reviewed materials selection studies and proposed a comprehensive method to compare the economic performance of construction material alternatives in this phase. The article constructed a life cycle costing equation used in the preliminary design stage that compared the total expected cost of the alternatives throughout the road construction project life cycle. The proposed life cycle cost method was divided into two scenarios according to the available information in the preliminary design phase and the material-dependent costs. A case study in Vietnam about the selection between baked bricks and concrete bricks was presented to demonstrate the proposed equations and models. The result showed that the baked bricks took the top priority due to the differences in cost items (e.g., transportation costs). Furthermore, to validate the models, they were applied to compare the expected and actual cost of 18 road construction projects in Vietnam–the differences are all below 10%. Further research may focus on building a database of models by applying the Building Information Model (BIM).