Conceptual cost estimating model for water pipeline projects

Little has been done to model construction costs in the Arab Gulf States; this is especially true with respect to modeling the costs of water projects. This paper develops a linear regression model to estimate the costs of water pipe line projects at the conceptual stage of project design based on data collected from one of the gulf states. The variables of the model were selected based on knowledge of the cost behavior as well as the contribution of the variable to the significance of the model. The model appears to be well-specified after it was verified using data from projects not used in the process of modeling.