“A savings of $4.62 for every $1.00 spent on SUE was quantified from a total of 71 projects. These projects had a combined construction value in excess of $1 billion. The costs of obtaining Quality Level “B” (QL B) and Quality Level “A” data on these 71projects was less than 0.5% of the total construction costs, and resulted in savings of 1.9% percent over traditional Quality Level C (QL C) and/or Quality Level D (QL D) data. Qualitative savings were non-measurable, but it is clear that those savings are also significant and may be many times more valuable than quantifiable savings.
The figure $4.62 is somewhat less than the $7.00 to $10.00(Previous Virginia DOT study), $18.00 to $1.00(Previous Maryland DOT study), and $10.00 to $1.00(Society of American Value Engineers) returns on investment that were previously reported. However, the quantity of studied projects is much higher; the projects are more random in nature; and no qualitative costs were included in the total. Indeed, one individual project had a $206.00 to $1.00 return on investment (North Carolina DOT). Only 3 of 71 projects had a negative return on investment.”