Most public agency engineers would place saving projects costs as a prime objective during the project development and delivery process. This paper argues that maximizing cost certainty rather than minimizing project cost is the more appropriate objective. The paper bases this assertion on the analysis of 1,267 projects from four states with a total construction value of $3.14 billion. The study compared the relationship between the design fee expressed as a percentage of estimated construction cost and cost growth from an early estimated construction cost used to establish the design fee itself. The paper finds that as the amount of resources invested in the preconstruction preliminary design and final design activities increases that the agency's ability to control the final cost of the constructed product also increases. It recommends that transportation agencies review internal policies and potentially adopt maximizing cost certainty as the ultimate goal of the preconstruction planning and design period.

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1Estimating the cost of preconstruction services during the early phases of highway project 2 development is an important task requiring an increased level of attention. Research has 3 found a link between early investment in preconstruction planning and design services and 4 final project costs. The purpose of this paper is to assess current estimating practices and

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