Assume that united technologies corporation is evaluating a proposal to change the company's manual design system to a computer-aided design (cad) system. the proposed system is expected to save 13,500 design hours per year; an operating cost savings of $55 per hour. the annual cash expenditures of operating the cad system are estimated to be $300,000. the cad system requires an initial investment of $750,000. the estimated life of this system is five years with no salvage value. the tax rate is 35 percent, and united technologies uses straight-line depreciation for tax purposes. united technologies has a cost of capital of 14 percent.

Suppose that a major city’s main thoroughfare, which is also an interstate highway, will be completely closed to traffic for two years, from january 2014 to december 2015, for reconstruction at a cost of $535 million. if the construction company were to keep the highway open for traffic during construction, the highway reconstruction project would take much longer and be more expensive. suppose that construction would take four years if the highway were kept open, at a total cost of $800 million. the state department of transportation had to make its decision in 2014, one year before the start of construction (so that the first payment was one year away). so the department of transportation had the following choices: (i) close the highway during construction, at an annual cost of $267.5 million per year for two years. (ii) keep the highway open during construction, at an annual cost of $200 million per year for four years. now suppose the interest rate is 80%. calculate the present value of the costs incurred under each plan.