Benchmarkings

Transportation and communications, the large to medium scale international class port costs USD200 Million often with host country local counterpart funding for civil works.
Large to medium scale airports cost USD200 Million with host country counterpart in local currency for civil works.
Rail, the cost per kilometer of rail inclusive of cost of coaches, USD1 Million per kilometer. Recent price changes has pulled the price much further upwards.
Energy, the cost per Mega Watt production output of a prospective power generating plant, is USD1 Million per Mega Watt.
Housing, for upscale housing, the cost in the Philippines is from PHP20,000 to PHP100,000 per square meter.
Environment, in new technologies for water safety management systems, the cost per 15,000 acres amount to around USD2 Million. For 20-year old technologies, the cost should be about 50% to 75% much lower.
Much benchmark data is already available on the world wide web and directly accessible.
Project Owners or Contractors are advised to beware of supplier or service provider companies that charge double or triple the price of their capabilities. Many companies are not transparent with their competencies, making project owners and general contractors suffer at the end when the true worth of their services, supplies and technologies turn out not to be what was paid for.
On the question of contracting, before the enabling documents or agreements are inked, a middle road should be reached through patient negotiations with suspect companies. However if a decent and fair price cannot be arrived at, no contract should be signed with over billing companies using obsolete software or hardware and providing substandard supplies.