The new CIRIA Guide to Cost Standards for Dredging Equipment 2009 offers a standard method to establish the capital and related costs of a wide range of dredging equipment.

It provides a description of the most common dredgers and dredging equipment used, as well as the principles and definitions for the standards and cost standard tables.

These tables represent calculations on replacement values, depreciation and interest costs as well as maintenance and repair costs for the various types of equipment.

The guide is based on the experience and statistics from international dredging contractors who are member of the International Association of Dredging Companies.

Following CIRIA’s tradition of collaboration, the study was guided by an independent steering group comprising clients and consulting engineers.

The Guide is a follow up to the first CIRIA edition of the Cost Standards 2005. The 2009 revision of the first edition has been necessitated by the extensive changes in base costs, technological improvements and occupancy that have occurred.

Experience with the new build values and base costs such as of larger trailing suction hopper dredgers, cutter suction dredgers and backhoes had to be taken into account.

"The examples of service hours and occupancy rates needed to be adapted to the actual practice. Furthermore, the Guide adopts a more consistent approach to class notation than the previous 2005 edition," said CIRIA.

As before, indices for the standard values will continue to be reviewed and published annually by CIRIA. The indices are produced for each section based on official index data from Eurostat and/or other index data published, which are weighted to correspond with data obtained from the shipbuilding industry and from dredging contractors.

Dredging is a capital-intensive industry, often involving only a few main pieces of marine equipment on each project. It is also a civil engineering or marine activity that frequently takes place in an inhospitable environment, where site investigation costs can be high and construction risks are elevated in relation to the working conditions and the potential difficulties of obtaining site information. As a consequence, dredging works tend to be subject to variation, re-measurement and occasionally disputes relating to valuation. The capital and related costs of equipment and contract values are crucial to the evaluation of these matters.

"This CIRIA Guide supports stakeholders in dredging projects – which include consultants, existing and potential clients, project financiers, insurers and others – in assessing these costs," CIRIA concluded.