Expertise in decision-making for large infrastructure projects: from UK trunk roads to High Speed Rail 2

This paper will study the anatomy of the decision making of Hong Kong Section of Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong High Speed Rail (XRL). The paper will focus on five aspects. They are drivers of megaprojects, mega infrastructure project as an agent of change, early and effective stakeholder engagement, Iron Triangle and context awareness. XRL will be regarded as a resonance test of the international literature findings.

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A Crossing-Line Between Transportation Evaluation and Natural Capital Assessment: Perspectives on Ecological Economics and Project Evaluation

The Open Transportation Journal ◽

10.2174/1874447801711010044 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 44-52 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hye Kyung Lee ◽

Hwan Yong Kim

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

High Speed ◽

Natural Capital ◽

Project Evaluation ◽

Sustainable Transportation ◽

Decision Making Process ◽

Natural Environments ◽

High Speed Rail ◽

Ecological Features ◽

Technological Advances

Introduction: Ranging from everyday choices to political arrangements, making the most efficient and effective outcome of the given circumstances is a critical part of decision-making process. Accordingly, achieving a balanced and sophisticated perspective in decision-making process is a hard task. However, there are possible ways to direct this issue, at least to some conceptual extent, and this article identifies possible considerations for more sustainable infrastructure planning decisions. Methods: This study presents a thorough review on project evaluation and transport externalities, especially in terms of ecological valuations. After that, a case study on a high-speed rail in the state of Texas, USA is examined to elaborate suggested solutions in sustainable transportation decision-making. Results: To appropriately reflect the changes in ecological features induced by a transportation project, location specific or project-based measurements are critical parts. There are certain ways to capture the monetary values of ecological features. Using the suggested methods, two high-speed rail alternatives are compared, and the one with more ecological preservation is considered could save the difference identified in construction in less than 15 years with the savings in monetary values of ecological features. Conclusion: Because environmental impact is often regarded in a separate study measuring the degree, not the economic values associated with it, precise meaning of ecological externalities is hard to understand. However, many scholars in both transportation and ecology disciplines emphasize the need for more inclusive considerations on opportunity costs of natural environments, and recently technological advances made this issue become more plausible. Based on Texas case, calculating monetary values of ecology could provide a different future about transportation investments, and for that reason, we should think more thoroughly on externalities.

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Development and Design of Large Infrastructure Projects: Disregarded Alternatives and Issues of Spatial Planning

Environment and Planning B Planning and Design ◽

10.1068/b32109 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 34 (4) ◽

pp. 626-644 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Hugo Priemus

Keyword(s):

High Speed ◽

Infrastructure Projects ◽

High Speed Rail ◽

Cost Overruns ◽

Decisionmaking Process ◽

Infrastructure Project ◽

In The Beginning ◽

Alternative Solutions ◽

Area Development

The Dutch Parliamentary Commission on Infrastructural Projects has conducted a parliamentary inquiry into the decisionmaking process and implementation control in two major infrastructural projects: the Betuwe Freight Line between Rotterdam and Germany, and the HSL - Zuid— the high-speed rail link which will connect Amsterdam with Belgium and France. The commission proposes a new assessment framework which gives parliament better control of the decisionmaking process for future large projects. In this contribution I discuss the development and design of large infrastructure projects, including the way the territorial impact of these projects is mitigated. I observe that problems are often approached from extremely narrow terms of reference, from one favourite solution, whereby countless potentially worthwhile alternative solutions are dismissed out of hand or enter the picture too late. In addition, problems concerning the mitigation of territorial impacts of infrastructure are misjudged in the beginning, and lead to cost overruns at a later stage. There is too much focus on the infrastructure track and not enough focus on area development. Also, the operation of the infrastructure project is misjudged and attention is too narrowly focused on the investment aspects of the project. I formulate some lessons for the future, not only for the Netherlands, but also for other modern countries. The timely generation and acknowledgement of infrastructure alternatives enhances the democratic process and quality of public decisionmaking.

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Engaging Multiple Actors in Large-Scale Transport Infrastructure Project Appraisal: An Application of MAMCA to the Case of HS2 High-Speed Rail

Journal of Advanced Transportation ◽

10.1155/2018/9267306 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-22 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Yannick Cornet ◽

Merrill Jones Barradale ◽

Henrik Gudmundsson ◽

Michael Bruhn Barfod

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

High Speed ◽

Large Scale ◽

Multicriteria Analysis ◽

Transport Infrastructure ◽

High Speed Rail ◽

Appraisal Process ◽

Project Appraisal ◽

Wide Range ◽

Multiple Actors

The most widespread approach to transport appraisal is to combine cost-benefit analysis (CBA) with environmental assessments and public consultations. However, large-scale transport projects such as the HS2 high-speed rail system in the UK seem to have pushed this approach beyond its limits, leading to broad discontent with the appraisal process. There is a need both to develop new methods capable of integrating a wide range of perspectives in a systematic manner and to test these for large-scale projects. Multicriteria analysis (MCA) has proven useful in supporting transport decision-making by including a broader set of criteria in the appraisal process. Multiactor multicriteria analysis (MAMCA) has extended this approach to include multiple actors and stakeholders in the judgment and decision-making process. This paper builds on the MAMCA method and demonstrates its practicability and usability by applying it to the case of HS2. The purpose of this paper is not to reach a definitive conclusion on the desirability of various project options, but to complement existing transport appraisal methods by making different perspectives explicit. For example, the results for this case show contrasting views for different groups of transport professionals: a favorable assessment of HS2 among transport planners employed in government, but an unfavorable assessment among transport researchers with a background in sustainability. In terms of contribution to the development of data collection methods, this research demonstrates the usefulness of conducting semistructured interviews in conjunction with an online questionnaire for the assessment and weighting process within MCA. Because MCA results are expressed in terms of relative desirability of projects, the approach also effectively systematizes the inclusion and assessment of multiple options. Overall, the proposed method enhances the capacity to analyze conflicting views in large-scale transport project appraisal processes.

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Literature Review of Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of High-Speed Rail in the World

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su132112231 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (21) ◽

pp. 12231

Author(s):

Mohsen Momenitabar ◽

Raj Bridgelall ◽

Zhila Dehdari Ebrahimi ◽

Mohammad Arani

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Decision Making ◽

High Speed ◽

High Speed Rail ◽

Scientific Database ◽

Future Studies ◽

The World ◽

New Research ◽

Inform Decision Making ◽

Deployment Cost

Countries considering high-speed rail (HSR) developments face enormous challenges because of their high deployment cost, environmental obstacles, political opposition, and their potentially adverse effects on society. Nevertheless, HSR services are importantly sustainable that can have positive and transformative effects on the economic growth of a nation. This paper systematically reviews and classifies impact areas of HSR deployments around the world as well as the analytical methods used to evaluate those impacts. We have utilized the scholarly scientific database to find articles in HSR systems. By defining some rules, we select 116 articles between 1997 and March 2020. The approach revealed interesting patterns and trends in space, time, and sentiment of the analyzed impacts on society, the economy, and the environment. The findings can inform decision-making about HSR developments and deployments, and the gaps identified in the literature can propose new research opportunities for future studies.

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