A critical factor in marketing this project to the farm
community in particular is pricing that is competitive with similar drainage
improvement projects. The project
partners researched the cost of what is viewed as a traditional, two-sided
re-construction ditch project where moderate to heavy brush is removed and found
that recent projects in the region are costing between $8 and $15 per linear
foot of stream. Often an
administrative or engineering fee of 20% or higher is added to that bringing the
range up to $9.60 to $18.00 per linear foot or higher.
If we were to take the total cost of this grant project,
which includes the matching funds, establishing the two-stage ditch and the
associated buffer cost $50.88 per linear foot.
Categorically, those costs per linear foot of stream are: earthmoving
$16.37, landscaping $4.04, engineering $13.68, outlet relocation of adjoining
ditch $2.99, value of the land in the buffer $11.86, legal survey $0.45, and
promotions $1.49
If we simply look at the cost of excavation, the
seeding/planting, and the erosion control the project cost $20.41 per linear
foot of channel. And if we had been
able to get the seeding/planting established in the fall of 2007, and avoided
the additional excavation, then the price would have dropped to $16.16 per
linear foot. At $16.16 per linear
foot we are competitively priced with comparable to projects recently completed
by the Allen County Engineer.
Another significant issue to landowners is the perception
that the project consumes too much land. If
Sugar Creek, upstream and downstream of the project segment, had 25-foot filter
strips on either side of the ditch then this two-stage ditch project represents
the loss of an 81-foot wide strip of cropland.
For the entire 4,500-foot length of the project that totals 8.37 acres
of cropland lost to production. Most
of our landowners would value that land at a minimum of $33,480 ($7.44 per
linear foot). As agencies, our
challenge over time is to assist landowners in equating the total benefits of
this practice to that land value. We
anticipate that those benefits will include decreased maintenance costs and crop
loss reduction due to flooding.