SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT OF ROAD INFRASTRUCTURES PROJECTS: A COMPLETE LIFECYCLE INTEGRATED APPROACH

Abstract

In a national context, economic growth, social well-being and infrastructure development have a strong relationship. This complex relationship is at the core of a nation’s development which also includes communication infrastructure. An ill-conceived road infrastructure project may potentially influence the socio-economic development. This enhances the need for a comprehensive assessment and evaluation tool for road infrastructure projects, covering a range of decision criteria to incorporate social and environmental concerns along with financial. Sustainable development encompasses all the criteria which lead the assessment in favor of social well-being. Thus, a Lifecycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) based holistic approach is devised for evaluation as well as prioritization of road infrastructure projects. The approach is operationalized in the form of a methodological assessment framework, a model to integrate all the facets of sustainability and a threshold based decision-making framework. A detailed literature review is carried out to identify and configure the methodological attributes of LCSA in the form of a methodological framework. Multifaceted interviews of experienced professionals, senior government decision makers and academic researchers are conducted for pairwise comparison of impact categories and their subjective reasoning. Based on this information, rationalization behind opinions is noted, minimum level of compromise on any impact is assessed and Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) based LCSA integration model is developed. Threshold limits of impact categories are evaluated using statistical analysis and a complete feedback driven decision-making framework is developed and demonstrated through a large-scale case study. The implications of this research are in the form of a comprehensive decision support tool which ensures holistic sustainability in road infrastructure projects.