Methodology for the Determination of Relative Weights of Highway Asset Management System Goals and of Performance Measures

Abstract

Of the overall benefits of a highway project, only a portion may be quantifiable in dollar values and the remaining in nondollar values. To facilitate project comparisons, both portions of project benefits need to be converted into commensurable values. Such conversion can be achieved by using multicriteria value functions that can be derived through weighting, scaling, and amalgamation. This paper introduces a methodology that applies the analytical hierarchy process to analyze survey data collected using the Delphi method to derive optimal weights of highway system goals and of performance measures needed in the weighting step. The writers further illustrate the impact of using the derived optimal weights over average weights assigned by survey respondents for estimating project benefits on project selection results in a case study. Significant differences are revealed in project selection results based on the two sets of weights. This provides evidence that highway project evaluation using the average weights could unduly skew the estimation of project benefits and, therefore, could yield biased decisions.