This study develops state-level construction cost factors for labor wage, labor productivity, and material cost across all U.S. states to support consistent and comparable cost estimation for power sector infrastructure projects. The study uses proprietary as well as public data sources to develop normalized cost factors, using Wisconsin as the base.
Labor wage factors were developed using 75th percentile wages for 20 skilled construction trades relevant to power sector projects. Labor productivity factors were updated from 2016 TAGWeb® data using state-level construction productivity trends derived from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics datasets. Material cost factors were derived from Construction Data Online Richardson Cost Factors local material indices, with BEA regional price parities (RPP)-Goods data used to identify the most comparable states for assigning material indices where Richardson data was not available.