Enhancing Value in Crucial Decisions: Line 9 of the Barcelona Subway

Abstract

In 2002 the construction of a new line of the Barcelona Subway System was approved. In contrast with the one-level traditional solution adopted in the recently constructed extension of the Madrid Subway System, an innovative two-level cross-section design was adopted in Barcelona, Spain. Obviously, such a decision has paramount importance in both the construction and the future use of the infrastructure. In this paper, the various aspects of this decision are analyzed and an integrated evaluation of both alternatives is carried out. The vast scope of the impact of this decision as well as the difficult evaluation of some of the criteria considered suggests the need for a rigorous methodology to objectively analyze this problem. With this objective, a decision-making tool created by the writers is applied, the denominated Integrated Decision System. In this framework, the economic, social, and environmental consequences of the decision are thoroughly discussed and quantified. All of these factors are assessed in order to integrate them into a value index, with the objective of evaluating this new design through a contrast with the traditional solution adopted in similar projects. Furthermore, this study is intended to help practitioners gain insight into the decision-making process they use when facing this kind of decision.