Analysis of Pre-Project Data for Flexible Opportunities on Road Projects in Norway

This paper focused on pre-defined reduction lists as one of the flexibility options in large investment road projects and attempted to obtain knowledge about reduction lists and their relationship with uncertainty.As information in the front end of projects is scarce having historical data about general reductions could be informative for new projects which helps consultants in identifying reduction possibilities.Furthermore, literature is currently lacking on the relationship between reductions and uncertainty.Knowing this relation leads to the use of flexibility for better uncertainty management through investigating more reductions as well as to understand the perspective of consultants about potential reductions in the sample of transport road projects.This study was based on qualitative and quantitative evaluation of 80 transport road projects.Analysis of reduction types showed that there are similar reductions to those found in previous studies.Uncertainty level had a statistical relationship with the changes in reductions.Data from these projects could give good direction to decision-makers at the portfolio level on the value of reductions and their relation with estimated uncertainties.However, reduction lists are not the only way to tackle extra costs and contingencies can be exploited for better cost management in projects and to help uncover new opportunities.