Cost Management Guidelines for Public Transport Investment Projects

Abstract

The National Transport Authority (the NTA) funds public transport infrastructure projects in the Greater Dublin Area. Such projects are generally sponsored, by the NTA’s partner organisations: the Railway Procurement Agency for Luas and Metro projects; and the CIÉ Group companies for other transport modes, in particular, Iarnród Éireann – Irish Rail for DART, commuter and regional railway projects. Those organisations are the contracting entities for such projects. In order to fulfil its statutory duty to secure the provision of public transport infrastructure on a value for money basis, the NTA requires that the Sponsoring Agencies follow clear processes with respect to cost estimation and cost management, that these processes follow best practice as far as possible, that the NTA is informed on all cost related issues as projects progress, and that at each key milestone in the development of a project the NTA is consulted and sufficiently informed about the developing project costs to make sound decisions on the authorisation of the next stage of work. These Cost Management Guidelines cover the cost management of both conventionally procured investment projects and Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects, are to be applied to all projects which the NTA is funding, and are applicable from 1st September 2010. They are to be read in conjunction with NTA’s separate guidelines for the management of conventionally procured and PPP projects, as appropriate, along with other Government guidance on particular aspects of project development and implementation.