13. Economic data

13.1 Varied and complex situations

The installation or replacement of a water pipe network covers a wide variety of situations.

The diversity and complexity of water network projects can be understood by analyzing the unit price lists (BPU) drawn up by local authorities. In the context of invitations to tender, these schedules enable an objective, exhaustive and unambiguous comparison of the cost of different bids, breaking them down into clearly coded unit operations. In practice, this makes each project specific. It is therefore difficult to communicate precise network costs. Some local authorities publish unit prices based on averages of prices actually charged in previous years' tenders (such documents can be found by searching on the Internet). These...