Application of Multicriteria Analysis to select the best highway alignment.pdf

TUNNELDESIGN Application of Multicriteria Analysis to Select the Best Highway Alignment G. S. Kalamaras, L. Brino, G. Carrieri, C. Pline, and P. Grass0 Abstract -Selecting the optimal alignment is a multi-disciplinary decisionproblem, with objectives which may conflict with one another. The approach selected for resolving this problem in a quantitative manner, is the Multicriteria Analysis, where ratings are attributed to different objectives, for the alternatives analyzed. The following principal objectives were considered for the highway project under consideration: minimization of the impact on the environment, optimization of the functionality of the alignment (also, in terms of safety), minimization ofconstruction time (with respect to the go-month deadline), minimization of construction and operational costs, and maximization of the results of the economic inuestment. In order to perform an evaluation of the possible alternatives it was necessary to breakdown these objectives into a set of corresponding criteria. Definition of a weighting factor for each criterion, signifying the importance of the criterion in the decision makingprocess, was done bypair-wise comparison, quantitative criteria and experts’ judgment. A rating system was defined for evaluating the performance of each alternative solution. Minimization of construction time and minimization of construction and opemtional costs are amongst the criteria with the highest weighting factors in selecting the optimal alignment. The software chosen for providing the hard data for this comparison was DATISIMSUPER. Due to the complexity of the alignment (viaducts, tunnels, normal road sections), a very large network ofconstruction activities had to be set up. The selected alignment was that of alternative A5 since, apart from being associated with low construction cost and ti,me, it was also associated with a favombleperformance with reference to the otherprincipal objectives: impact on t