Rising oil price & cost of building transport infrastruc

[OrraLoon]

Been reading stuff on LATOC about the rising cost of ?blacktop? stemming from the higher oil price. Is anyone able to come up with figures on the % increase in the cost of building a new mile of motorway or bypass versus the % increase in the cost of building a new mile of rail or light rail if oil were at $150, $200 or $300 dollars?

[skeptik]

Is anyone able to come up with figures on the % increase in the cost of building a new mile of motorway or bypass versus the % increase in the cost of building a new mile of rail or light rail if oil were at $150, $200 or $300 dollars?

Absolutely no idea, but if forced to guess, I'd say that the inflationary effect of rising oil price would be similar on both.

[biffvernon]

Presumably the black stuff is what's left behind after the petrol and diesel and heating oils have been taken out of the crude. Heavy crudes will produce more so the tar should be a bit of a surplus by-product these days and not reflect the rise in overall crude prices.

[neckiep]

I heard Daniel Lerch speak at a conference recently and he said that in America lots of projects where cancelled because of lack of availability of tar.
I havent got a copy of "Post Carbon Cities" but I imagine theres info on their website
postcarboncities.net

[neckiep]

Well If Id have looked at their website before posting I'd have found this

http://postcarboncities.net/node/3080

heres a few quotes


"Fewer roads will be repaved this summer, thanks to soaring prices of oil-based asphalt.

"Some states, cities and counties say their road-repair budgets didn't anticipate asphalt prices that are up 25.9% from a year ago, so they're being forced to delay projects.

"'We will do what patching we can, but this will truly, truly be a devastating blow to the infrastructure,' says Shirlee Leighton, a county commissioner in Lake County, S.D., where a 5-mile repaving project was postponed after bids came in $79,000-$162,000 higher than the $442,000 budget.

[bigtoe]

The Oildrum have an article on refining.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4038

It seems asphalt can be shoveled into something called a 'coker' an turned into petrol, kerosene etc etc.

[biffvernon]

"Some states, cities and counties say their road-repair budgets didn't anticipate asphalt prices that are up 25.9% from a year ago, so they're being forced to delay projects.

Ah ha, just as I thought. The black stuff up by a quarter while light sweet crude has doubled.

[OrraLoon]

The Oildrum have an article on refining.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4038

It seems asphalt can be shoveled into something called a 'coker' an turned into petrol, kerosene etc etc.

Yeah, let's melt down the M9 and use it to paint the Forth Rail Bridge!

Thanks for all the replies. Was hoping for something to show that steel and sleeper production would inflate less. Something to quote at politicians at all levels. But maybe it would be trumped by spurious consumption projections anyway.

[Norfolk In Chance]

The biggest cost on most things in the developed world is somewhere around 60 to 80% labour cost. It could be argued with economies and construction sectors in general experiencing a sharp decline, higher material costs will be offset by lower labour costs from those eager to hang on to jobs.