Cost Benefit Analysis - Program Evaluation (25th ARRB Conference)

Road projects are typically evaluated individually before submission for funding to either State or Federal Government Programs. However, there are occasions when projects are grouped together and evaluated as a program and the program is then submitted for funding. This paper focuses on the quantitative evaluation of programs and the methods of ranking and evaluating proposed projects within a program.

Three methods of program evaluation are discussed in this paper. The first method applies an approach dubbed the ‘simultaneous’ approach. This approach involves evaluating all projects simultaneously under the assumption that either all the proposed projects are constructed or none of the proposed projects is constructed. The second method applies an approach dubbed the ‘sequential’ approach. This approach involves evaluating projects in the sequence of a predetermined level of priority. The third method adopts both the simultaneous and sequential approaches.

The $670,000,000 Warrego Highway Upgrade (WHU) program and the $40,000,000 Nation Building Bruce Highway Overtaking Lane (NBBHOL) program have been included in this paper as examples of programs with different approaches to evaluation. The WHU program was evaluated using the sequential approach while the NBBHOL program was evaluated using the simultaneous approach.

The video can be watched at the link below:

The reference and link to the full paper is as follows:
Davies, W. (2012), Road Program Evaluation: Assessing the Bigger Picture, 25th ARRB Conference (Paper and presentation), available at: http://114.111.144.247/Presto/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=MjE1ZTI4YzctZjc1YS00MzQ4LTkyY2UtMDJmNTgxYjg2ZDA5&rID=MzE5Nw&qcf=&ph=VHJ1ZQ&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&

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